Lebanon’s foreign minister has asked the president to be relieved of his duties, the presidency said, after his televised comments appearing to blame Gulf states for the rise of ISIL (ISIS) caused a diplomatic firestorm.
“Those countries of love, friendship and fraternity, they brought us Islamic State,” Charbel Wehbe, who is a minister in the caretaker government, told Alhurra TV on Monday, without naming the countries.
Wehbe made the comment during a verbal duel with a Saudi guest on the show, who blamed Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun for “handing over” his country to the Lebanese Shia movement, Hezbollah, which is backed by Riyadh’s rival Tehran. Wehbe stormed off the TV set saying he would not be “insulted by a Bedouin”.
Wehbe apologised on Tuesday, saying he did not mean to offend “brotherly Arab countries”.
After meeting President Michel Aoun, Wehbe said he had submitted a request to step down “in light of the recent developments and the circumstances that accompanied the interview I gave to a television station”.
The comments have threatened Lebanese efforts amid a deep economic crisis to improve ties with Sunni Muslim Gulf states, which have been reluctant to offer the kind of financial help they once did because of their frustration at the rising influence of Hezbollah.
