Lebanon tribe: Get Saudi's envoy out of here

A tribe in Lebanon has called on Saudi Arabia to sack its ambassador to Beirut after he cancelled a planned appearance at their event on 1 November.

Walid Bukhari made a last minute change to his schedule and cancelled a planned visit to the town of Faour in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, over “security concerns”.

The Saudi envoy’s cancellation stirred the resentment of the town’s residents who demanded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman dismiss him.

In a video posted on Twitter, a Faour resident addressed attendees saying: “The town of Faour welcomes everyone, and the municipality is grateful for the organisation that took place. You have seen the organsiation for yourselves which has never happened anywhere else. But it seems that the guards accompanying the ambassador from the Hamzeh tribe do not want him to visit us. We do not want anything from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, nothing at all. All we want is our dignity.”

“The dignity of the sheikhs and clans in Lebanon is more important than a state employee from Saudi Arabia. We are addressing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman to expel Bukhari from Lebanon. We do not want any ambassador to visit us.”

However, Saudi embassy sources said the security team accompanying the ambassador took the decision for security reasons, while the ambassador himself regretted not being able to visit the town.

“I cancelled my visit to the Faour village due to security concerns. I thank the inhabitants of Faour … for their understanding and for issuing a statement clarifying what happened,” Bukhari wrote on Twitter.

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