BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Former Lebanese information minister George Kordahi, who resigned under pressure from Saudi Arabia, stresses that he will not retract his statement denouncing the years-long Saudi-led aggression against impoverished Yemen.
On December 3, Kordahi submitted his resignation in a bid to ease tensions between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, which put unprecedented pressure on Beirut to oust the 71-year-old minister after he attacked, with disparaging remarks, the ongoing Saudi-led war on impoverished Yemen.
In his resignation statement, he stated that he stepped down not because he was willing to do so but because of unrelenting external pressure built up against him. “The interests of my country and my people and supporters are above my personal interest. Lebanon is more important than George Kordahi, and the Lebanese interests are more important than a ministerial role,” he said a t a news conference as he announced his resignation.
In an exclusive interview with Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam television news network, Kordahi said he would not back down from his remarks, when asked whether he would repeat the same critical remarks against Saudi Arabia over its brutal war on Yemen,
Kordahi said, “Yes, I will repeat the same remarks. Because I did not say anything that offended anyone and I spoke in good faith. The campaign against me for my statements started in Lebanon. Therefore, if this campaign had not started in Lebanon, no one would have felt it.”
He once again noted that he was forced to resign under external pressure.
“When I resigned, I did not feel good about being forced to resign,” Kordahi said, adding, however, that he stepped down for the good of Lebanon. “If Lebanon did not have these current problems and crises and bankruptcy, I would have no reason to resign, and the government could have opposed my resignation, and the whole Lebanese nation would have rejected this resignation.”
“In fact, I can say that this resignation has achieved much more than what I had in mind at the national and personal level. For forty days, I was pressured from all sides to be forced to resign. I resisted for forty days. I could have resisted for up to four years, but I had to consider national interests,” the ex-minister said.
“Therefore, I was looking for a way out to guarantee [my country’s] national interests, to maintain my dignity, and to show those who blamed us all over the Arab world that I know the concept of national sovereignty and national dignity,” he added.
Back on August 5, Kordahi, who was not appointed to the post at the time, said during a television program, which was aired in October, that the devastating war on Yemen was an act of aggression by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Riyadh’s most significant ally in the military coalition. He called the war “absurd,” saying it must stop because he is opposed to wars between Arabs.
Kordahi also said at the time that the Yemeni army forces and their allied fighters from Popular Committees were “defending themselves ... against an external aggression,” and that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the Saudi-led coalition. He also said the war was “futile” and it was “time for it to end.”
His scathing remarks at the program infuriated Riyadh and prompted Saudi Arabia to expel the Lebanese ambassador from Riyadh and withdraw the kingdom’s ambassador from Beirut. In solidarity with Riyadh, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE took similar measures.
Riyadh also banned all imports from the Mediterranean country.