Mikati moves to repair diplomatic rift with Gulf

Lebanon’s prime minister says he has agreed to a road map with the country’s president to repair a diplomatic rift with the Gulf.

Najib Mikati called on a minister whose comments led Saudi Arabia, the UAE and three other countries to withdraw their ambassadors from Beirut to “take the right decision and prioritise the national interest”.

He stopped short of demanding that Information Minister George Kordahi stand down.

“I’m relying on his sense of patriotic duty for the interests of the Lebanese both here and abroad,” he said.

In his first comments since Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen withdrew their ambassadors, he said “decisive meetings” to address the crisis were planned.

He insisted that his government wanted good relationships with Saudi Arabia and other Arab governments.

Mr Mikati discussed the crisis with President Michel Aoun on Thursday morning, after he returned from the Cop26 climate summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

Saudi Arabia has also banned all Lebanese imports, adding to the pressure on Lebanon’s leadership.

The crisis was further inflamed when a recording of Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib bluntly expressing his government’s powerlessness to push back against the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah was leaked.

“If we sack Kordahi, what will we get from the kingdom? Nothing. They’ll ask for more,” Mr Bou Habib is heard saying.

On Sunday, Mr Kordahi said his resignation was “out of the question” despite calls for him to stand down from across the political spectrum.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Riyadh’s move was more than a knee-jerk response to Mr Kordahi’s comments.

He said the move was a response to Hezbollah’s dominance of the Lebanese political system

“We have come to the conclusion that dealing with Lebanon and its current government is not productive and not helpful,” he said.

The Gulf is Lebanon’s main export market. A similar ban on the import of fresh fruits and vegetables was announced by Riyadh this year, in response to repeated seizures of smuggled narcotics.