Kuwaiti Foreign Minister visits Lebanon to address Gulf crisis Political Issues

The Kuwaiti prime minister says Lebanon should not interfere in Gulf affairs in order to improve relations.

The Gulf Arab states want to resolve a dispute with Lebanon, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said during his visit, the first visit by a Gulf official since the conflict began last year.

“This trip is one of several international efforts to restore Lebanon’s credibility,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah said on Saturday after talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the start of the two-day visit.

“We are now taking action to strengthen the faith … which is not a coincidence,” he told reporters, urging Lebanese officials to take “real steps” that would help strengthen ties.

He said his visit was also a testament to his solidarity with the Lebanese people, and that the move was in line with other Gulf states.

In October, Saudi Arabia is allied with it to suspend diplomatic relations and Lebanon after announcing comments by then Minister of Information Georges Kordahi opposition Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.

Kuwait remembered its Beirut ambassador and asked Beirut officials to leave the emirate.

Lebanon “should avoid interfering in the internal affairs of Arab states in most cases, especially in Gulf internal affairs, and it should not be a starting point or a real attack” if it wants to improve relations, Sheikh Ahmed said.

The Kuwaiti official said he had given Mikati and his Lebanese friend, Abdallah Bouhabib what he wanted and “now the brothers in Lebanon should learn it and know how to deal with these issues and move forward”. He declined to state clearly what he wanted.

Last month, Kordahi resigned to resolve the dispute and French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris and Riyadh had agreed to take action to restore their relationship.

In the weeks following the departure of Kordahi, tensions between Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia continued. The crisis stems from Saudi Arabia’s instability due to Iran’s strong rise in the region, including Lebanon, a former Saudi ally and a financial backer from the oil-rich empire.

In late December, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman appealed to the Lebanese people to talk about “ending the Hezbollah insurgency in Lebanon”.

In early January, Hezbollah-backed Iranian-backed leader Hassan Nasrallah launched the campaign verbal attack against the regime, accusing Riyadh of spreading “extremist Islamic ideology”.

The Gulf crisis has exacerbated Lebanon’s economic woes, a crisis in which the World Bank is known to be one of the worst in the world today.

More than 300,000 Lebanese live in the Gulf Arab states, which provide much-needed economic support, according to the Gulf Labor Markets and Migration think-tank.

The Lebanese government has announced plans to secede from the war in the Middle East, although Hezbollah has been involved in regional conflicts, sending troops to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad.

Sheikh Ahmed said isolation should be “in words and deeds”.

On Sunday, he is expected to meet with President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri, both Hezbollah allies.

Aoun and Mikati have asked for talks with Saudi Arabia to end the crisis.