Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Lebanon’s foreign minister has called for the initiation of talks with Saudi Arabia as part of efforts aimed at resolving the ongoing disputes and easing a spiraling diplomatic row between the two countries.
“Lebanon invites Saudi Arabia to engage in dialogue to solve all outstanding problems and not just the latest spat, so that the same crisis is not repeated every time,” Abdallah Bou Habib said in an interview with AFP on Monday.
Habib said such problems can only be “resolved through dialogue, communication and trust, and not through imposition.”
Saudi Arabia on Friday gave Lebanon’s ambassador 48 hours to leave the country, recalled its envoy from Beirut and suspended all imports from Lebanon following remarks made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi on the war on Yemen.
Meanwhile, Habib refuted on Monday recent accusations made by Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry that Hezbollah controls Lebanon and the diplomatic crisis between Beirut and Riyadh is rooted in the dominance of the resistance movement.
“Hezbollah is a strong component of the Lebanese state, perhaps the strongest, but it doesn’t have a political monopoly,” Lebanon’s foreign minister said.
Put patriotic sense above all to defuse crisis: Prime minister to Kordahi
In another development on Monday, Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on Kordahi to “put his patriotic sense above all else” to defuse the diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia.
The prime minister also said he “regrets” the Saudi decision to expel Lebanese diplomats, urging Riyadh to reconsider the move.
“We face a downhill slope and if we don’t avoid it, we will end up where nobody wants us to,” Mikati was quoted by the Beirut-based al-Mayadeen TV channel as saying.
Kordahi defied diplomatic pressure to step down from his post on Sunday and said resigning from the government “is out of the question.”
