by Holly Ellyatt @HOLLYELLYATT & Sam Meredith @SMEREDITH19 -- cnbc -- Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has denied that the kingdom is experiencing a diplomatic crisis with Lebanon but has said the country sees any current engagement with Beirut as not “productive or useful.” The comments come after Saudi Arabia ordered Lebanon’s ambassador to leave the kingdom following what it saw as “insulting” remarks by a Lebanese minister. “I don’t think I would call it a crisis,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in Rome, Italy on Saturday, but said the comments by the Lebanese minister — which referred to Saudi Arabia’s role in the ongoing civil war in Yemen — demonstrated the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah was increasingly dominant in Lebanese politics. “I think we have come to the conclusion that dealing with Lebanon and its current government is not productive and not helpful with Hezbollah’s continuing dominance of the political scene, and with what we perceive as a continuing reluctance by this government and Lebanese political leaders in general to enact the necessary reforms, the necessary actions to push Lebanon in the direction of real change,” Prince Faisal said. “We have decided that I think engagement at this point is not productive or useful. And it’s not really in our interest.”

Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi made remarks in an interview in which he referred to the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen and called the war “futile.” He also appeared to insinuate that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were aggressors in the conflict. The ongoing civil war in Yemen, which has lasted seven years, has seen Saudi-led forces (who support the Yemeni government) fighting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for control of the country. Responding to the comments, Saudi Arabia ordered the Lebanese ambassador to leave within 48 hours on Friday and recalled its own ambassador from Lebanon. Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE also took similar actions in solidarity with Saudi Arabia. The Lebanese government has sought to calm the diplomatic crisis, reportedly saying that Kordahi’s remarks (which were made before he became a minister) did not reflect its position. There has been mounting pressure on the minister to resign too. For his part, Kordahi has said he did not mean to offend Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Prince Faisal told CNBC that the comments by the Lebanese minister were “a symptom of a reality, a reality that the political scene in Lebanon continues to be dominated by Hezbollah, a terrorist group, a group that by the way, arms and supplies and trains that Houthi militia.” “So for us, it is broader than just the comments of one minister, it is more an indication of the state that Lebanon is in.”

thearabweekly.com -- CAIRO--Lebanon’s foreign minister said on Friday he was forming a group to heal a diplomatic rift with Saudi Arabia that saw the kingdom order the Lebanese ambassador to leave within 48 hours and ban all Lebanese imports. The Saudi steps came in response to critical comments made by a Lebanese minister about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. Lebanon’s foreign minister Abdullah Bou Habib said in a statement the situation with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries was not a crisis, adding that it could be solved through dialogue. The row over critical comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen threw the government into a new crisis amid calls for Kordahi’s resignation. If Kordahi resigns, ministers backed by the heavily armed Hezbollah group and its Amal ally could follow suit at a time when the government is already paralysed by a dispute over an inquiry into the August 2020 Beirut blast.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Kordahi on Friday evening to consider Lebanon’s “national interest” but stopped short of asking for his resignation. A group of former Lebanese prime ministers called on Saturday for Kordahi to resign, saying his comments had inflicted a strong blow to relations with Gulf Arab nations. Fouad Seniora, Saad al-Hariri and Tammam Sallam said in a statement that Kordahi’s remarks “harmed Lebanon’s supreme national interest”. Kordahi has been publicly backed by Hezbollah and has declined to apologise or resign over the comments, which have dealt the worst blow to Saudi-Lebanese relations since Hariri’s 2017 detention in Riyadh.

by naharnet.com — Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh on Saturday defended Information Minister Georges Kordahi after KSA, Kuwait and Bahrain expelled the …

by arabnews -- CAIRO: The Arab League on Saturday said Lebanese officials should have dealt differently with the crisis stemming from comments by the country's information minister which have impacted its relations with countries in the Gulf region. Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit “expressed his deep concern and regret over the rapid deterioration in Lebanese-Gulf relations...,” the league statement said. He also said that there are parties that have an interest in dismantling Lebanon's relations with Arab countries. The statement added Aboul Gheit was confident Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati would act quickly to ease the crisis.

Aboul Gheit appealed to Gulf countries "to reflect on the measures proposed to be taken...in order to avoid further negative effects on the collapsing Lebanese economy". The statement came a day after Saudi Arabia ordered the Lebanese ambassador to leave the Kingdom within 48 hours and banned all Lebanese imports in response to remarks by the Lebanese minister, who described the war in Yemen as Saudi “aggression.” Hours later, Bahrain ordered the Lebanese ambassador to leave the country within two days for the same reason, Bahrain's foreign ministry said. (With Reuters)