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Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave the Lebanese diplomat 48 hours to organize his departure, at the same time that he called his ambassador in Beirut, in rejection of the country that he described as “absurd” the Saudi participation in the war in Yemen . Thus, the expulsion is a show of support for Saudi Arabia, a day after Riyadh and Bahrain did the same with the Lebanese representatives on their territory.
A new coup hurts Lebanon, a nation that already faces a crippling political and economic crisis.
And it is that Kuwait ordered the Lebanese ambassador to leave his country and called his own diplomat in Beirut for consultations, in the middle of a scuffle unleashed by the comments of the Lebanese Minister of Information about the participation of Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen.
“Based on the historical and deep ties of Kuwait with the sister kingdom Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces that it has called the ambassador in Lebanon for consultations and orders the departure of the Lebanese charge d’affaires in the State of Kuwait in the next 48 hours, “the Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement issued by the state news agency KUNA.
A few minutes later, the United Arab Emirates joined in the expulsion of the representative of Beirut from its territory, the same step that Bahrain and, of course, Saudi Arabia had taken the day before.
As a consequence, this Saturday, October 30, the Saudi ambassador in Beirut, Waleed Bukhari, flew to his country, after the Government of Riyadh called him for consultations. In addition, it banned all imports from Lebanese soil, in a devastating economic blow as Saudi Arabia has been a destination for Lebanese products for decades.
The Gulf nations are doing this to back the Saudis and increase pressure on Lebanon. The small nation is in the grip of an acute financial crisis considered by the World Bank to be one of the worst in the world since 1850.
Against this background, the Lebanese government reported that its Prime Minister Najib Mikati has already contacted his foreign counterparts and requested the help of the United States to try to find a solution to the diplomatic dispute.
Yemen, the point of contention between Lebanon and the Gulf countries
Saudi Arabia’s anger, followed by support from its allies, erupted after an interview with Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi was revealed this week, calling the war in Yemen “absurd.”
The official criticized the military intervention of the Saudis in said conflict, against the Houthi rebels who are close to Iran, and asked that he be detained when he disagreed with the conflicts between Arabs.
Yemen has been bleeding to death from a civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels backed by the Iranian Islamic Republic took control of Sanaa, the capital, and much of the north of the country. The situation forced the internationally recognized government (that of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour) to flee south and later go into exile in Riyadh.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, backed by the United States, intervened with a military coalition they lead in support of government forces against the Houthis.
But the pro-government camp has its own internal divisions that prolong the dispute. Despite a relentless air campaign and ground fighting, the conflict has deepened to a stalemate that has generated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to United Nations reports.
The Yemen conflict is widely viewed in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Meanwhile, thousands of people have lost their lives and the poorest nation on the Arabian Peninsula has been on the brink of famine.
With Reuters and AP
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