BEIRUT (Dispatches) –Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister says the kingdom does not plan to engage with the Lebanese government at this time in a deepening rift, reports Reuters.
Lebanon is facing its worst diplomatic crisis yet with Persian Gulf states, spurred by a minister’s comments about the Saudi-led invasion on Yemen that prompted Riyadh to expel Lebanon’s ambassador, recall its own envoy and ban all imports from Lebanon.
“We see no useful purpose of engaging with the Lebanese government at this point in time,” Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud told France 24 television in an interview aired on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia was angered by an interview in which Lebanon’s newly appointed information minister George Kordahi said Yemen was being subjected to external aggression.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement’s leader last week described Riyadh’s reaction to comments by information minister as “exaggerated” and accused Saudi Arabia of seeking a civil war in Lebanon.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Riyadh pretends to be friends with the Lebanese people and government while pushing its allies to stand against the popular resistance movement in the country.
He made the remarks in a televised speech on Thursday, while addressing a ceremony held to commemorate Hezbollah Martyrs’ Day, which annually falls on November 11.
“It is assumed that Saudi Arabia presents itself as a friend of the Lebanese people, but its problem is with Hezbollah. Is this how a friend deals with his friend?” Nasrallah said.
He added, “The Saudi pressure [on the Lebanese information minister to resign over remarks made on the Yemen war] is part of the battle against the resistance in Lebanon and not with Hezbollah, as a political party, and is therefore [a battle] against the resistance.”