Lebanon’s minister goes to Kuwait with answers to Gulf suggestions

Beirut: Lebanon’s foreign minister headed to Kuwait on Saturday to deliver answers to a list of policy suggestions made to the country by Arab Gulf nations in an attempt to end an impasse between both sides.

Ahead of his departure, Foreign Minister Abdullah Bu Habib made it clear that Lebanon will not disarm the Iran-funded Hezbollah group, one of 10 confidence-building measures requested from Beirut.

Relations between impoverished Lebanon and the Gulf states are at their lowest levels in decades, a crisis triggered late last year when a Lebanese politician spoke critically of the Saudi-led war against Iran-backed militants in Yemen.

Following Information Minister George Kordahi comments, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Beirut and banned all Lebanese imports, affecting hundreds of businesses and cutting off hundreds of millions in foreign currency flows to Lebanon. Several Arab countries followed Saudi Arabia’s step.

Bu Habib will attend an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Kuwait on Sunday during which he will hand his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah official responses to the Gulf nations’ suggestions. Al Sabah had delivered them personally to Beirut earlier this month.

“I am not going to hand over Hezbollah’s weapons nor end Hezbollah’s existence. This is out of the question in Lebanon,’’ Bu Habib told satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera, calling the group a “Lebanese party par excellence” that is active in the government but does not dominate politics in Lebanon.

“We hope to have excellent relations as in the past’’ with Gulf nations, Bu Habib said, adding that Lebanon had suggestions for solving problems between the two sides, but without elaborating.

The list handed over by Kuwait’s foreign minister and circulated in Lebanese media included implementing US Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of all militias in Lebanon. Major anti-corruption reforms should be implemented as well, all verbal or real attacks on Gulf nations should cease.

Bu Habib said Lebanon respects international resolutions, but added that time was needed for some.

Kordahi, who made his comments before taking his post, resigned in December, but the move did not lead to improved relations between the two sides.

The crisis goes deeper than Kordahi’s comments aired in late October, however.