Hezbollah calls for Saudi apology over information minister row

Hezbolllah’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, yesterday demanded Saudi Arabia apologise to the Lebanese government after it summoned the latter’s envoy over Information Minister George Kordahi’s comments on the Yemen war.

Qassem told Al-Manar that Saudi Arabia had “caused trouble for Lebanon under the pretext of Kordahi’s remarks.”

“Saudi launched a diplomatic aggression on Lebanon, but it’s real target has always been Hezbollah and its military power,” he added, calling on Riyadh to “concede and apologise to the Lebanese people.”

Member of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc in the Lebanese parliament, Hassan Fadlallah, said on Saturday that his country was facing a “fabricated crisis, under the title of relations with some Arab countries,” stressing that Lebanon was “entirely shaken” for Saudi Arabia’s decision to sever ties with Lebanon.

“Kordahi was not in a position of responsibility when he made his statements about the war in Yemen,” he pointed out.

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The official stressed that Lebanon was a “country of public freedoms and diversity,” noting that the Lebanese constitution was guaranteeing public freedoms.

Footage from August – before Kordahi was appointed minister – aired in October showed the information minister describing the war against Yemen as one of aggression by the Saudi-led coalition, branding the conflict as “futile” and said the Houthis were acting in “self-defence”.

Lebanon’s Information Minister, George Kordahi, is criticised for his comments defending the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, saying they were acting in “self-defence”- Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]