Envoys asked to leave over minister’s Houthi remark
Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador to Lebanon for consultation and asked Beirut’s ambassador to the kingdom to leave, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The kingdom also imposed a blanket ban on all imports from Lebanon, said a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency on Friday.
Lebanon’s ambassador to the kingdom was asked to leave within 48 hours.
It marked a worsening of relations between the two countries.
Last Wednesday, Saudi Arabia and the UAE summoned Lebanon’s ambassadors in response to comments from Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi.
He defended the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, saying they were acting in self defence.
Shortly after the Saudi statement was released, Bahrain’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had also asked its Lebanese ambassador to leave within 48 hours.
Kuwait followed suit yesterday, recalling its ambassador from Lebanon and asking Beirut’s charges d’affaires to leave within 48 hours, state news agency Kuna reported.
Lebanon confirmed the move by Saudi Arabia but said it hoped to find a solution to the crisis.
“We regret greatly the kingdom’s decision and hope that the wise Saudi leadership will reconsider,” Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.
Mr Kordahi, in a TV interview broadcast last week, said
the Houthis, who seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014 and forced the internationally recognised government into exile, were “defending themselves ... against an external aggression”.
A coalition of Arab nations intervened in the conflict in 2015, at the request of the Yemeni government.
Lebanese imports to Riyadh were worth $282 million in 2019 and the ban is likely to hit Lebanon’s already ailing economy.
The Saudi statement was an escalation in the disagreement, despite Mr Mikati disSaudi
tancing himself and his government from the comments.
Mr Mikati said Mr Kordahi’s statements “do not express the government’s position at all”.
Saudi Arabia also said the decision to ban imports was made partly because of Lebanon’s failure to “stop the export of the scourge of drugs from Lebanon through Lebanese exports to the kingdom”.
The Saudi authorities have intercepted millions of Captagon pills hidden in various shipments of imported goods.
Captagon is an amphetamine mostly produced in Syria and Lebanon.
In April, Saudi Arabia banned imports of fruit and vegetables from Lebanon after five million pills were found in a shipment of pomegranates.
“The kingdom’s government affirms its concern for the Lebanese citizens residing in the kingdom, whom it considers part of the fabric and bond that unites the Saudi people and their Arab brothers residing in the kingdom, and does not consider that what is issued by the Lebanese authorities expresses the positions of the Lebanese community residing in the kingdom,” the statement said.
Mr Kordahi defended the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, saying they were acting in self defence