BEIRUT — During a meeting with Premier Najib Mikati on Wednesday, the recently expelled Lebanese ambassadors to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain reportedly warned that “every day a resolution to the crisis is delayed will lead to more difficulties in restoring these relations and returning them to what they were before.” 

Here’s what we know:

    • In their first meeting with Mikati since their expulsion from the Gulf, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Fawzi Kabbara and Ambassador to Bahrain Milad Nammour also expressed “fears of the aggravation of the crisis on the future relations between Lebanon and the Gulf states,” the NNA reports. “The Saudi and Bahraini officials affirmed to them, upon their departure, their deep concern of the close ties and the strong friendship that binds them to the Lebanese people of all categories,” the Lebanese state news agency added.

    • During the meeting, Mikati reiterated his stand on the importance of relations between the Gulf states and Lebanon and called for priority to be given to the “national interest over personal interests and those of certain groups.”

    • Mikati’s meeting with Kabbara and Nammour took place two weeks after comments from Information Minister George Kurdahi on Saudi Arabia’s intervention in the war in Yemen resurfaced, leading to a diplomatic rift between Lebanon and Gulf countries. The spat also led to the expulsion of Lebanon’s emissary to Kuwait.

    • Mikati also met with Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Yasser Alawi and discussed with him the latest developments in Lebanon and the region.