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Kuwait gave Lebanon’s ambassador 48 hours to leave the emirate on Saturday, a day after Saudi Arabia made a similar move over a minister’s comments about its war in Yemen.
The diplomatic row, which has also seen Bahrain expel Lebanon’s envoy, has dealt another blow to Lebanon, already in the midst of crippling political and economic crises.
“Kuwait… asks Lebanese envoy to leave country in 48 hours,” Kuwait’s foreign ministry said on Saturday in a brief statement carried by state news agency KUNA.
The statement added that Kuwait’s top diplomat to Beirut was also being recalled.
The dispute intensified on Friday after the broadcast this week of an interview in which Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi criticised the war in Yemen.
In his remarks — recorded in August but aired on Monday — Kordahi called the seven-year war in the Arabian Peninsula country “futile” and said it was “time for it to end”.
Kordahi said Yemen’s Huthi rebels were “defending themselves… against an external aggression”, adding that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by a Saudi-led coalition.
The Huthis are backed by Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, which also wields significant influence in Lebanon, due to its strong backing of the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah.
‘Unacceptable’
Kuwait’s foreign ministry said the expulsion and recall was based on the “failure” of the Lebanese government to “address the unacceptable and reprehensible statements against the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the rest” of the Gulf Cooperation…
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Source : france24
