BEIRUT: Lebanon’s foreign minister asked the president to be relieved of his duties on Wednesday, the presidency said, after his comments in a television interview strained ties with traditional Gulf Arab allies and donors.
Charbel Wehbe, who is a minister in the caretaker government, suggested on Monday that Gulf states had supported the rise of Daesh, among other disparaging comments.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain summoned Lebanon’s ambassadors and issued formal complaints...REUTERS
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Foreign minister Charbel Wehbe offered his resignation on Wednesday in the wake of global condemnation over remarks he made suggesting the Gulf states were responsible for the rise of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
Lebanese President Michel Aoun confirmed that Wehbe had submitted his resignation in a tweet posted on Wednesday. The diplomat evidently felt he could no longer fulfil his duties and responsibilities in light of the controversy generated by the views he had expressed in a TV interview.
“Those countries of love, friendship, and fraternity, they got us Islamic State and planted it in the plains of Nineveh and Anbar and Palmyra,” Wehbe had said, referencing the Gulf states during a broadcast on the Alhurra regional network on Monday.
Aoun had previously rejected the foreign minister’s comments as a “personal opinion” that “in no way reflects the position of the Lebanese state,” while Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri condemned Wehbe for angering allies when Beirut was “drowning” in crises.
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The Daily Star
Caretaker foreign minister asked the president to be relieved of his duties on Wednesday, the presidency wrote on Twitter, after his comments in a television interview strained ties with his country's traditional Gulf Arab allies and donors.
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