Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah defended Information Minister George Kurdahi in comments Sunday. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Two Hezbollah MPs on Sunday rallied in defense of Information Minister George Kurdahi, who has faced calls for his resignation after his comments on the war in Yemen sparked a diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
Here’s what we know:
• "We support the stance of Minister Kurdahi, which is a national, sovereignist position and expresses a courageous personality that does not give in to blackmail," MP Hasan Ezzeddine (Hezbollah/Sur) said at a ceremony for students in southern Lebanon.
• The Hezbollah MP added that Saudi Arabia took Kurdahi’s comments “as a pretext to threaten the Lebanese and interfere in their internal affairs.”
• Meanwhile, MP Hasan Fadlallah (Hezbollah/Bint Jbeil) said during a meeting of residents in the southern village of Aita Shaab that his party “rejects the pressures being exerted” on Kurdahi.
• “We stand with Minister Kurdahi because he made no mistakes,” the parliamentarian said, adding that “We do not accept that our country is taken hostage and blackmailed,” an implicit reference to Saudi Arabia, which on Friday recalled its envoy from Beirut and ordered a stop to Lebanese imports.
• Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE all followed in Saudi Arabia’s footsteps over the weekend, demanding the Lebanese envoys in their countries’ leave while calling back their own ambassadors.
• Lebanese ministers formed a crisis cell on the diplomatic spot, meeting Saturday amid calls from former premiers Fouad Siniora, Tammam Salam and Saad Hariri for Kurdahi to resign.
• Kurdahi, for his part, said Sunday that his resignation was “out of the question.”