Scathing remarks about Gulf countries by caretaker Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe have drawn criticism from Premier-designate Saad Hariri amid concern that they may cause a rift with key allies as Lebanon faces several crises. (Credit: ANI)
DUBAI/CAIRO/BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Lebanon’s ambassador on Tuesday to hand over a memorandum protesting against what it described as “offenses” made by caretaker Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbi. The Kuwaiti and Emirati foreign ministries later followed suit, respectively summoning the Lebanese envoys to their countries.
Wehbi threatened to stoke new tensions in a television interview on Monday, when he appeared to blame the Gulf for the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and neighboring Syria.“Those countries of love, friendship and fraternity, they brought us Islamic State,” he told Alhurra without naming them.
The UAE handed Lebanon’s ambassador an official protest note denouncing Wehbi’s comments, its state news agency, WAM, reported.
Kuwait delivered a similar note to the Lebanese embassy’s charge d’affaires, condemning Lebanon’s foreign minister's “insults” and saying his remarks were “contrary to the historical brotherly relations that ties GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] states with Lebanon,” Kuwait's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Wehbi said on Tuesday his comments were misrepresented and Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian like Wehbi and also an ally of Hezbollah, said the minister’s comments were his “personal opinion” and praised “brotherly” ties with the Gulf.Mired in its worst economic crisis since a 1975-90 Civil War, Lebanon has lost the financial backing it once relied on from wealthy Sunni Muslim Gulf states that are increasingly frustrated at the rising influence of Hezbollah, a Lebanese group backed by their rival Shiite Iran.
Others in Lebanon were swift to criticize Wehbi.
Saad Hariri, the Sunni prime minister-designate now trying to form a cabinet and whose family’s wealth was built up in Saudi Arabia, said Arab support was vital.
“As if the crises that the country is drowning in and the boycott it is suffering from are not enough,” he said.
Crushed by debt, Lebanon’s economy has imploded, sending its currency into tailspin. A massive blast at Beirut port in August added to its woes, prompting the last government to resign. It is now acting in a caretaker role.
Months later, politicians in the fractious, sectarian system are still squabbling over new appointments.
Western donors, led by France, which also previously bailed out Lebanon, want a cabinet of technocrats before releasing aid.
Mass protests in 2019 had also called for sweeping out the old elite, many of whom have held top posts for years.
Hariri, who like his assassinated father has led several cabinets, has yet to announce a new line up in a country where the prime minister should be a Sunni, the speaker of Parliament a Shiite and president a Christian.
Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have been reluctant to offer aid to ease Beirut’s economic woes, keeping their distance while alarmed by the rising influence of Hezbollah, a powerful militant group backed by their arch-rival, Iran.
In April, Saudi Arabia banned Lebanese fruit and vegetable imports, blaming drug trafficking, after it said its customs officials had foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 5.3 million pills of Captagon, a type of amphetamine, hidden in pomegranate shipments.