LONDON: Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Thursday urged Information Minister George Kordahi to resign from cabinet after he ignited a diplomatic rift with Saudi Arabia.
In a speech in Beirut following his return from the climate change conference in Glasgow, Mikati called on Kordahi to embrace his sense of patriotism and do the right thing.
“I repeat calls for the information minister to listen to his conscience and take circumstances into consideration and decide the stance he should take,” he said.
Mikati said that Lebanon is eager to resolve its diplomatic rift with Gulf countries over comments made by Lebanon’s information minister surrounding the war in Yemen.
Kordahi has so far refused to quit over the comments, in which he said Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis were defending themselves and Yemen was being subjected to foreign aggression.
He said that his remarks were personal views made before he was a minister, and that he is committed to government policy
Last week, Kordahi triggered a social media frenzy when a video of him calling the war in Yemen “absurd” and saying the Houthis were defending themselves emerged online.
Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador from Beirut and expelled the Lebanese envoy. The UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain followed suit.
