Lebanon says government can't afford to resign as Saudi rift widens
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BEIRUT • Lebanon's government cannot afford to resign over a growing diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states, a member of a Lebanese crisis group of ministers said following a meeting over the widening rift.
"The country cannot be left without a government," due to other pressing matters, and would continue to work to resolve the rift, Education Minister Abbas Halabi said after the meeting yesterday.
The row over critical comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen had spurred calls by some top politicians for Mr Kordahi's resignation, while others opposed the move.
Saudi Arabia expelled Lebanon's envoy and banned all Lebanese imports on Friday, with Bahrain and Kuwait following suit, giving the diplomats 48 hours to leave.
Mr Kordahi's resignation would have knock-on effects that could threaten Prime Minister Najib Mikati's coalition government.
But Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said Mr Mikati's contacts with officials from a number of states showed opposition to the resignation of the government, formed only last month after a 13-month stalemate.
"They told Mikati, 'if you are thinking about resignation, take that out of your head'," he said.
Mr Richard Michaels, deputy head of the United States mission in Lebanon, joined the crisis meeting, an embassy spokesman said.
Mr Mikati had asked Mr Kordahi on Friday to consider Lebanon's "national interests" but stopped short of asking for his resignation.
Mr Kordahi has been publicly backed by armed group Hizbollah and has declined to apologise or resign over his comments, which have dealt the worst blow to Saudi-Lebanese ties since former prime minister Saad al-Hariri's 2017 detention in Riyadh.
The information minister had on Aug 5 called the war futile, said Yemen is subjected to aggression and that its Iran-aligned Houthis are defending themselves.
Yet a group of former Lebanese prime ministers yesterday called for Mr Kordahi to resign, saying his comments had inflicted a strong blow to relations with Gulf Arab nations, and that the remarks "harmed Lebanon's supreme national interest".
The row comes as Lebanon struggles with a financial crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history.
Mr Mikati has been hoping to improve ties with Gulf Arab states strained for years because of the influence wielded in Beirut by the Iran-backed Hizbollah.
Saudi Arabia had already in April banned all fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon, blaming an increase in drug smuggling it said Lebanon had failed to address, a ban now extended to all goods.
The Arab League yesterday appealed to Gulf countries "to reflect on the measures proposed... in order to avoid further negative effects on the collapsing Lebanese economy".
REUTERS
