Lebanon’s Hariri denies receiving UAE funding to reopen family-owned Future TV 

The media office of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, denied on Tuesday local media reports claiming that the United Arab Emirates has sent funding to Hariri to reopen a TV network owned by his family.

“The media office of Mr. Saad Hariri denies the report by Al-Akhbar newspaper, which has become specialised in fabricating news and rumours and spreading lies about everything related to Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the Future Movement, as well as Arab countries, especially the Gulf countries, after it turned into a media mouthpiece to insult these countries,” the office said in a statement.

“Perhaps Al-Akhbar newspaper, the primary beneficiary of foreign funding from a well-known source, accuses others in order to justify its actions and intentionally ignore the fact that the UAE has always stood by the Lebanese state and all the Lebanese people and this matter is known to all of Lebanon,” the statement added.

Earlier, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper claimed in an article that UAE funding to Future TV aims to confront the “Turkish tide” and to influence the course of the maritime demarcation talks with Israel.

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