Saudi Arabia sees no purpose in engaging Lebanon at this time, foreign minister says

DUBAI – Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said the kingdom does not plan to engage with the Lebanese government at this time amid a deepening rift in relations between the two countries, reiterating a call on the Lebanese political class to end the “domination” of the Iran-allied Hezbollah movement.

Lebanon is facing its worst diplomatic crisis yet with Gulf states, spurred by a minister’s critical comments about the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, which prompted Riyadh to expel Lebanon’s ambassador, recall its own envoy and ban all imports from Lebanon.

“We see no useful purpose [in] engaging with the Lebanese government at this point in time,” Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud told France 24 in a television interview aired on Saturday.

“I think that the political class needs to step up and take the necessary actions to liberate Lebanon from the domination of Hezbollah, and through Hezbollah, Iran.”

Saudi Arabia was angered by an interview in which Lebanon’s newly appointed information minister, George Kurdahi, appeared to side with Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis and said Yemen was being subjected to external aggression.

Kurdahi said the interview was recorded before he became a minister and has refused to apologize or step down.

Hezbollah’s leader last week described Riyadh’s reaction to Kurdahi’s comments as “exaggerated” and accused Saudi Arabia of seeking a civil war in Lebanon.

Riyadh, long locked in a rivalry for regional influence with Iran, has said its actions were driven not just by Kurdahi’s comments, made before the cabinet formation, but rather its objection to the growing heft of Hezbollah in Lebanese politics.

Gulf states were traditional aid donors to Lebanon but, dismayed by Hezbollah’s expanding power, have been loath to help rescue Lebanon from a devastating economic crisis, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement.