Kuwait: Lebanon must not be platform for hostility, Kuwaiti FM says – Gulf Digital News

Kuwait: Lebanon must not be platform for hostility, Kuwaiti FM says – Gulf Digital News

Kuwait's foreign minister said on Sunday Lebanon must not be a platform for hostile acts or words toward Gulf Arab states, an indirect call for curbs on the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in order to improve strained ties.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah spoke after meeting President Michel Aoun in Beirut, during the first visit to Beirut by a senior Gulf Arab official since a diplomatic rift last year.

Sheikh Ahmad said on Saturday he had delivered confidence-building proposals to Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and that his trip was coordinated with Gulf states.

"We asked that Lebanon not be a platform for any aggression - verbal or actual," Sheikh Ahmad said after meeting Aoun. "I presented ideas and thoughts ... And we are awaiting a response," he added.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters that among the 12-point proposals was that Lebanon commits to the 1989 Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon's civil war, tightens border controls to prevent drug smuggling to the Gulf and steps up security cooperation.

The Gulf initiative expressed hope that Beirut will respond by end of the month during a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Kuwait.

Lebanon's ties have long been strained by the influence of the heavily armed Shi'ite