Saudi Arabia summons Lebanese envoy over ‘offensive’ comments made by information minister

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by arabnews.com -- RIYADH: Saudi Arabia summoned the Lebanese ambassador to the Kingdom on Wednesday over “offensive” comments made by Lebanon’s information minister. The foreign ministry expressed its disappointment at comments made by Lebanon's Information Minister George Kordahi regarding the Arab coalition in Yemen. It said it was disappointed by the “insults contained in those statements directed at the Kingdom and countries part of the Arab coalition.” The ministry said that the statements showed a clear bias toward the Houthis who threaten security and stability in the region. The “statements contradict the simplest political norms and are inconsistent with the historic relations between the two brotherly peoples,” the ministry added. Kordahi sparked controversy on Tuesday when a video of him referring to the Houthis as defending themselves emerged online. He also called the war in Yemen “futile.” The comments were made before he took up his current position.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the interview was recorded more than a month before his cabinet was formed and reflected a personal opinion that had nothing to do with government. The Houthis continue to target civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Kingdom and Yemen almost daily. The UAE condemned the “disgraceful and biased statements” made by Kordahi and summoned the Lebanese ambassador to the country in protest. The Emirati foreign ministry said it informed the ambassador of its protest and denunciation of the statements, saying they “reflect Lebanon’s growing distance from its Arab brotherly countries.” The Gulf Cooperation Council condemned the comments while Bahrain summoned the Lebanese envoy to protest against the statements. Kuwait also summoned Lebanon's charge d’affaires and the Yemeni foreign ministry called on Beirut to clarify its position on the comments, according to a statement issued by its embassy in Beirut.

President Michel Sleiman: مقابلة خاصة | الرئيس اللبناني السابق ميشال سليمان

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Lebanon's top politicians agree on solution to tensions, cleric says

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By Reuters -- Lebanon’s top Christian cleric on Tuesday said the country’s three leading politicians agreed to a “solution” to political tensions and government paralysis tied to high-profile judicial investigations. “There is a constitutional and legal solution to the current crisis,” Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai said during a news conference after a day spent shuttling between the prime minister, the parliament speaker and president. An official source said the solution involved prosecuting former ministers charged over the August 2020 Beirut port explosion at a special court made up of MPs and judges while allowing blast investigator Tarek Bitar to continue with the cases of lower-level officials. The special court, formed by a parliamentary vote, has never held any official to account. Bitar has sought to question top officials including former ministers affiliated with the Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal movement and the Marada Movement, both allies of Hezbollah, which has responded with a smear campaign accusing Bitar of politicising the probe. Rai had earlier said after a meeting with Berri that issues had to be resolved “because Lebanon is dying, the people are dying and the state is disintegrating.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has not convened a Cabinet meeting since Oct. 12, pending a solution to the standoff that has paralysed government for over two weeks. The dispute spilt over into the Cabinet when ministers allied to those parties called for Bitar’s removal in a heated discussion during the last session. Rai also said he was “slightly upset” about the summoning of Lebanese Forces party leader Samir Geagea by army intelligence for a hearing over fatal clashes in Beirut’s Ain Al-Remmaneh neighbourhood this month. On Oct. 14, seven people, all followers of Hezbollah and Amal, were shot dead during a Beirut protest the parties organised against Bitar, the worst street violence in more than a decade. The parties said the seven were killed by supporters of the Christian Lebanese Forces party headed by Samir Geagea, who has backed the blast investigation. Geagea has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Lebanon Waleed Bukhari told Lebanese religious figures on Tuesday that the Kingdom “cares for Lebanon’s security, stability, institutions and co-existence between Christians and Muslims.” The Saudi embassy’s media office said: “There is no legitimacy for the discourse of strife, nor for one that goes against Lebanon’s Arab identity.” This was the first Saudi statement since the bloody clashes in Tayouneh on Oct. 14.

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Lebanese media minister George Kordahi stirs controversy yet again by defending Houthis

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Geoge Kordahi

Prime Minister Mikati: Qardahi’s words about Yemen are unacceptable and do not reflect Lebanon’s position. Regarding the Minister of Information’s words George KordahiWhich is being circulated, and which is part of an interview I conducted with him several weeks before he took up his ministerial position, it is unacceptable and does not express the government’s position at all, especially with regard to the Yemeni issue and Lebanon’s relations with its Arab brothers, specifically the brothers in Kingdom Saudi Arabia resources Gulf Cooperation Council countries“.

by arabnews.com -- DUBAI: Once again, Lebanon’s information minister has triggered social media frenzy when a video of him wishing for a ‘temporary military coup’ to emanate and restructure the country’s political life, surfaced on Tuesday. “I wish that a military coup happens in Lebanon, yet a temporary military coup that comes to organize and reorganize the political life in Lebanon,” the current Lebanese information minister George Kordahi was heard telling a TV host in the short video. An independent online media platform, Megaphone posted on Twitter the two and a half minute video that has so far been viewed by nearly 6000 users. According to Lebanese news portal, Annahar online, the video was part of an interview conducted by a media platform called Barlamanasha3b [People’s Parliament] and the interview was carried out on August 5.

At the time, Kordahi had not yet been named as information minister in Prime Minister Najib Mekati’s cabinet that was formed during September. When the host opposed him by saying ‘there is nothing called temporary military coup’, Kordahi maintained saying: “Yes there is a temporary military coup for at least five years [in my opinion] then they reappoint the political regime.” When the TV host of Barlamanasha3b asked him about his position on what is happening in Yemen, Kordahi said ‘they’ [referring to Houthis] are defending themselves’. He questioned in a exclamatory tone, ‘Them! Are they assaulting anyone?’. “In my opinion, this Yemeni war is absurd and should stop,” he said.

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Military court charges 68 over deadly Beirut clashes

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by Najia Houssari -- arabnews.con -- BEIRUT: A Lebanese judge has charged 68 people following the Oct. 14 deadly clash in the Tayouneh neighborhood of Beirut that left seven people dead and dozens wounded. Eighteen are in detention while the remaining 50 continue to evade the authorities. The clash south of Beirut broke out during a Hezbollah-organized protest against Judge Tarek Bitar leading the investigation into last year’s massive Beirut port blast. Judge Fadi Akiki, the state commissioner to the military court, charged the 68 people with crimes including murder, attempted murder, inciting sectarian strife, having unlicensed weapons and sabotage. The five-hour long battle was fought between supporters of Hezbollah and Amal, plus gunmen believed to be supporters of the Lebanese Forces party. It took place on the border between Beirut’s Chyah and Ain Al-Rummaneh neighborhoods. Also on Monday, Lebanon’s military intelligence agency summoned the head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, to give testimony regarding the deadly clashes. He was asked to appear before military investigators on Wednesday.

A security source confirmed to Arab News that the Directorate of Intelligence of the Lebanese Army summoned Geagea to the investigation branch in the Ministry of Defense. Members of the Internal Security Forces pasted the summons on the door of Geagea’s headquarters in Maarab. The source told Arab News that “the directorate of intelligence moved at the request of Judge Akiki, who asked army intelligence to listen to Geagea as a witness.” The source added that “information is still being collected in these incidents, and there are detainees whose status must be decided upon.” A judicial source indicated that a search warrant might be issued and an investigation launched against Geagea if he failed to attend the hearing.

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Lebanon top Christian politician summoned for hearing over deadly clashes

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BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanese Christian politician Samir Geagea was on Monday summoned for a hearing by Army Intelligence over the fatal clashes in Beirut this month, a source close to the party said. The Oct. 14 clashes left seven people - followers of the Lebanon’s Shiite Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its ally, the Amal Movement - dead in the worst street violence in Beirut in over a decade. Geagea has denied allegations by both parties that gunmen loyal to his Lebanese Forces party Responding to reports he would be summoned for interrogation, Geagea, in the same interview, had said he would go “on the condition that Nasrallah is heard before me,” in reference to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah targeted demonstrators with sniper fire, saying residents of the Christian-majority area where the violence took place acted in self defence. The demonstrators had gathered to demand the removal of the judge investigating last year’s port blast that killed more than 200 people, Tarek Bitar.

Hezbollah, Amal and the Christian Marada Movement have accused Bitar of politicising the probe after he sought to question former ministers affiliated with the latter two parties. Geagea’s hearing has been set for 9 a.m. on Wednesday at the Defence Ministry in Yarze, south of Beirut, where the former militia leader was imprisoned for more than 11 years after the end of Lebanon’s 1975-90 Civil War, the source told Reuters. It was not immediately clear whether Geagea would attend or whether other politicians had been asked to appear. A security source confirmed the time of the hearing when asked by Reuters. “All political forces (involved) should be summoned like Geagea, but it’s clear that there is a big targeting of the Lebanese Forces and its chief,” for their support of the investigation into the blast, the source said.

Responding to reports he would be summoned for a hearing, Geagea, said in an interview aired on local television last week he would go “on the condition that Nasrallah is heard before me”, in reference to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. MP Sethrida Geagea, Samir Geagea’s wife, said in a statement that pressure was being exerted on the judiciary to target the Lebanese Forces. “It is illogical to summon the aggressed while the aggressor is spared even being heard,” she said. A Lebanese judge on Monday separately charged 68 people including 18 detainees with murder and incitement to sectarian strife over the clashes. Their political affiliations, if any, remain unclear.

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