Search
Search

LEBANON-GULF CRISIS

Consideration of Kuwaiti proposal to start today and finish before Saturday, says Bou Habib


Consideration of Kuwaiti proposal to start today and finish before Saturday, says Bou Habib

Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib and his Kuwaiti counterpart Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad Al-Sabah. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)

BEIRUT — Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said Monday that Lebanon's leaders will consider today the proposals transmitted Sunday to the Lebanese authorities by his Kuwaiti counterpart, Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, to ease the diplomatic crisis that has persisted between Beirut to several Gulf monarchies since October.

Here's what we know:

    • "We will start today to study the Kuwaiti letter, and we will have finalized it before Saturday," said Bou Habib from the Presidential Palace in Baabda after Monday morning's cabinet meeting. According to comments made to the local TV channel NBN, the minister had indicated Sunday that the President Michel Aoun could convene a meeting with Prime Minister Nagib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berry to agree on a response to the letter delivered by the Kuwaiti minister. He said that the Lebanese authorities have given themselves five days to "discuss the Kuwaiti initiative."

    • Al-Sabah handed over the proposals to Mikati and Aoun over the weekend during an official visit, the first of a Gulf official to Beirut following the diplomatic tensions created last October by the controversial remarks of then-Information Minister George Kurdahi on Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen. The visit, organized in coordination with Gulf countries, is part of efforts to restore trust with Lebanon. 

    • The Kuwaiti letter comprises several points, including one concerning compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which requires the disarmament of all non-state groups, including Hezbollah. On Saturday, the Kuwaiti official had, in fact, called for "Lebanon not to be a platform for verbal or concrete aggression" in a thinly veiled criticism of the Iran-aligned party. He also rejected any "tendency to interfere in the internal affairs of Lebanon."

    • The emirate of Kuwait has been one of the supporters of Lebanon during its more than 2-year-old financial crisis, regularly providing material and financial assistance. However, Kuwait stood together with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries when they recalled their ambassadors to Lebanon in late 2021.

In early January, Hezbollah sponsored a conference in support of the opposition to Saudi rule, sending yet another strong message to Riyadh, which it accuses of orchestrating a smear campaign targeting it, and also the Lebanese state, which is seeking, so far unsuccessfully, to restore its diplomatic relations with Arabia. Last December, the Gulf Cooperation Council had already called on Lebanon to "carry out reforms" and "prevent the terrorist Hezbollah from carrying out its terrorist activities" at the end of a summit in Riyadh of the Gulf Arab monarchies.

BEIRUT — Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said Monday that Lebanon's leaders will consider today the proposals transmitted Sunday to the Lebanese authorities by his Kuwaiti counterpart, Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, to ease the diplomatic crisis that has persisted between Beirut to several Gulf monarchies since October.Here's what we know:    • "We will start today to study...