BEIRUT (Archyde.com) – Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser al-Mohammed al-Sabah said on Sunday during a visit to Beirut that Lebanon should not be a platform for hostile actions or rhetoric, in an indirect call to curb Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in order to improve strained relations with Gulf Arab states.
The Kuwaiti foreign minister made the remarks after he met Lebanese President Michel Aoun in Beirut, in the first visit of a senior Gulf official since a diplomatic row erupted last year.
Sheikh Ahmed said on Saturday that he had handed Prime Minister Najib Mikati confidence-building proposals and that his visit came in coordination with other Gulf Arab states.
After meeting Aoun on Sunday, Sheikh Ahmed said, “What we demanded is that Lebanon not be a platform for any verbal or physical aggression… and I reiterate that there is never any tendency to interfere in Lebanon’s internal affairs.” These are ideas and suggestions as confidence-building measures, which we hope will be dealt with in a manner beneficial to all.”
Relations between Lebanon and Gulf Arab states, already strained by Hezbollah’s influence, plunged into a new crisis in October due to comments by former Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi in which he criticized Saudi-led forces in Yemen.
Kuwait is one of the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council that responded with Saudi Arabia to Qardahi’s statements by expelling the Lebanese ambassador and recalling its ambassador from Beirut.
The Lebanese president, a political ally of Hezbollah, said in a tweet on Sunday, “The ideas of the ‘rebuilding confidence’ initiative that the Kuwaiti minister conveyed will be the subject of consultations to announce the appropriate position on it, and there is a firm Lebanese keenness to preserve the best relations between Lebanon and the Arab countries.”
Lebanese governments have long adhered to a policy of disassociation from wars and conflicts in the Middle East, even as Hezbollah is involved in regional conflicts, including deploying fighters to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Gulf Arab states accuse Hezbollah of providing military support to the Houthis in Yemen.