BEIRUT (MEMO) – Lebanon has banned Bahraini opposition figures from holding two events, weeks after ordering their expulsion from the country amid ongoing diplomatic tensions between Beirut and Persian Gulf states.
On Thursday, Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said he was banning two Bahraini opposition events scheduled to be held on Friday and next Monday, but it was not immediately clear who the organizers were.
“If these two events were to take place, they would undermine official Bahraini authorities and Persian Gulf Arab states, thus blocking efforts by Lebanon to boost ties with these countries,” Mawlawi said in a statement.
According to Mawlawi, the events had been scheduled to take place in a hotel near Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport in the capital’s southern suburbs.
In October last year, Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi angered Riyadh and its Persian Gulf allies by describing the Saudi-led war on Yemen as “futile” in an online show affiliated with Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network, adding that the Yemeni armed forces are successfully defending the state.
Saudi officials immediately responded by recalling the kingdom’s ambassador from Beirut and banning all Lebanese imports. The response was supported by Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
As Saudi pressure built on his country, Kordahi eventually announced his resignation in December 2021 and said he had decided to put Lebanon’s national interests above “personal” preferences.
Kordahi, a popular former Lebanese game show host, had made the critical remarks before being appointed as information minister.
In December, Mawlawi instructed General Security to deport members of al-Wefaq, Bahrain’s leading opposition party, after they held a news conference and released reports highlighting human rights abuses in the kingdom.
The order came after the Bahraini opposition group held a news conference south of the Lebanese capital in early December last year, denouncing the Al Khalifah regime and presenting a documented report on human rights breaches in the kingdom.
“We believe that the decision, which was issued by the Lebanese minister of interior, is a political decision and is not based on a legal case,” Ali al-Fayyez, a Bahraini political activist, said at the time.
Fayyez explained that the conference was “A peaceful activity guaranteed by international laws and treaties regarding freedom of opinion and expression.”
The activist highlighted that “even the U.S. Department of State, the British Foreign Office and the Human Rights Council” have all issued reports similar to the one presented by al-Wefaq in the press conference.