RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi Arabia said Friday it was recalling its ambassador to Lebanon and giving Beirut\u00a0s envoy 48 hours to leave Riyadh, after “insulting” remarks made by a Lebanese minister on the Yemen war.<\/p>\n
The regional heavyweight\u00a0s decision, accompanied by an imports halt, is a further blow for Lebanon, which is in the midst of an economic crisis that the World Bank has said is likely to rank among the planet\u00a0s worst since the mid-19th century.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia ordered the “recall of the ambassador in Lebanon for consultations, and the departure of Lebanon\u00a0s ambassador to the kingdom within 48 hours”, over the “insulting” remarks made this week by Lebanon\u00a0s information minister, the foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n
The wealthy Gulf kingdom also “decided to halt all Lebanese imports”, citing the “security of the kingdom and its people”, a statement added.<\/p>\n
Riyadh deplored the deterioration of relations with Lebanon and said “further measures” will be taken against Beirut, without elaborating.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u00a0s Prime Minister Najib Mikati reacted quickly, saying he “regretted” the Saudi move.<\/p>\n
“We are deeply sorry for the kingdom\u00a0s decision and hope that it will reconsider. As for us, we will continue to work to solve what needs to be solved,” he said.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday had summoned Lebanon\u00a0s ambassadors over Information Minister George Kordahi\u00a0s criticism of the Riyadh-led military coalition fighting rebels in Yemen.<\/p>\n
Later Friday, Bahrain — a tiny Gulf kingdom close to Riyadh — also expelled the Lebanese ambassador, giving the envoy 48 hours to leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi Arabia said Friday it was recalling its ambassador to Lebanon and giving Beirut\u00a0s envoy 48 hours to leave Riyadh, after “insulting” remarks made by a Lebanese minister on the Yemen war. The regional heavyweight\u00a0s decision, accompanied by an imports halt, is a further blow for Lebanon, which is in the midst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13258,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13256\/revisions\/13258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}