Kuwait’s FM decries statement by Lebanese economy minister on aid

KUWAIT CITY/BEIRUT: Kuwait’s foreign minister on Saturday strongly condemned a statement made by Lebanon’s economy minister on Wednesday, saying it was incompatible with “political norms.”
The Kuwait News Agency cited minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah as saying that Lebanese Economy and Commerce Minister Amin Salam’s comments “contradicted political norms, portraying insufficient understanding (of) how decisions are made in Kuwait,” particularly regarding humanitarian grants and loans offered to “sisterly and friendly” states.
Salam suggested on Wednesday that Kuwait could fund the reconstruction of Lebanon’s main wheat silos, which were destroyed in the Beirut Port explosion three years ago, “with the stroke of a pen.” The silos’ original construction was funded by Kuwait in 1969 through a loan from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.
“Kuwait boasts a historic record of supporting sisterly and brotherly peoples and states, however it emphatically rejects any intervention in its decision making and domestic affairs,” Al-Sabah said on Saturday, urging the Lebanese minister to withdraw his statement for the sake of “maintaining bilateral relations.”
Salam later held a press conference in Beirut and issued a clarification. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, Salam claimed that what he actually meant by his use of a “normal Lebanese colloquial phrase” was that a decision to rebuild the silos could be taken swiftly.
The Lebanese minister stressed that his use of the phrase “was not intended to transgress the principles and constitutional and legal mechanisms in force in Kuwait or in Lebanon.”
Salam added that he hoped the Kuwaiti parliament would accept his clarification, saying: “I had a clear conscience in my request because I appealed to a brotherly country that has always stood by Lebanon … I am aware of the risks to food security, especially since the World Bank has classified Lebanon as the most (vulnerable country) in terms of food-security challenges because it does not have a strategic stockpile.”