Kuwait: Kuwaiti minister visits Beirut in first Gulf Arab trip since rift – Gulf Digital News

  • Date: 23-Jan-2022
  • Source: Gulf Digital News
  • Sector:Technology
  • Country:Kuwait
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Kuwait: Kuwaiti minister visits Beirut in first Gulf Arab trip since rift – Gulf Digital News





Kuwait's foreign minister visited Beirut on Saturday in the first trip by a senior Gulf Arab official since a diplomatic rift last year, saying he had delivered confidence-building proposals to Lebanon in a message coordinated with Gulf states.

Long strained by the influence of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, Lebanon's ties with Gulf Arab states were plunged into a new crisis in October by comments from a former Lebanese minister criticising Saudi-led forces in Yemen.

Kuwait was one of several members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Saudi Arabia, that responded to George Kordahi's remarks by expelling the Lebanese ambassador and recalling its envoy to Beirut.

Speaking after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah said ties with Beirut had not been severed and relations were now in a phase of confidence-building measures.

He said he had delivered proposed confidence-building steps to Mikati and the Lebanese foreign minister and "the brothers in Lebanon should study them and know how to deal with these matters".

"All the GCC states are sympathetic and in solidarity with the Lebanese people ... the Kuwaiti move is a Gulf move," Sheikh Ahmad said.

Saudi Arabia and fellow Sunni-led Gulf Arab monarchies once spent billions of