Kuwaiti FM meets Aoun, says Lebanon is a place of 'hope'

ByNews Desk- The Cradle

The visit by Kuwait's top diplomat is the first official visit since relations between Lebanon and GCC countries became tense after former Lebanese minister Kordahi criticized the Saudi-led war on Yemen

Lebanese President Michel Aoun met with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Ahmed Nasser al-Mohammed al-Sabah on 23 January in Baabda Palace in Beirut, the Lebanese president’s official residence.

During the meeting, Aoun underlined that his country always seeks the “best relations” with Arab countries.

The Lebanese president announced that the Kuwaiti foreign minister’s statement on rebuilding trust with Lebanon would be discussed in order to take a proper position on the issue.

After the meeting between Kuwait’s top diplomat and Aoun, the two participated in a joint press conference.

The Kuwaiti foreign minister announced he was carrying the message of his country, of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and of the international community to rebuild trust with Lebanon.

Foreign Minister Al-Sabah also stated that Kuwait has no desire to interfere in the internal affairs of Lebanon, and that Lebanon is an arena of hope for all, not a place of enmity.

On 22 January, Minister Al-Sabah had said that he will visit Lebanon in coordination with the countries of the GCC, and that its members would express their solidarity with Lebanon.

“We invite the Lebanese to visit Kuwait, just as the Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has already been invited to visit Kuwait,” Kuwait’s foreign minister said.

This is the first visit of a senior official from the GCC to Lebanon since the recent crisis between Beirut and GCC member states.

Lebanese-Saudi relations have recently been strained following remarks by the former Lebanese minister of information, George Kordahi, about Saudi Arabia’s role in the Yemeni war.

Kordahi had said in an interview with Al Jazeera that fighters allied with Yemen’s Ansarallah movement are “merely defending themselves against an external aggression.”

He also went on to say that “homes, villages, funerals, and weddings were being bombed” by the Saudi-led coalition, that the seven-year war in Yemen has been “futile,” and it was “time for it to end.”