Audio recordings of the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah Bou Habib, were published by the Saudi newspaper Okaz, exposing controversial statements he has made about Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi newspaper posted the recordings on its official Twitter page, alleging that they implicate Abdullah Bou Habib and that he tried to hide them from the media.
Bou Habib, according to the newspaper, minimized the importance of the Arab Gulf financial support to Lebanon when considering that the important aid was coming from the European Union (EU) and the World Bank.
“As for Saudi aid, it is not for the state but was given in the elections, and aid was given to the relief authority after 2006, which we ignore where it was spent, but the state did not take from it anything,” Bou Habib said in the recordings.
By that Bou Habib is implying that the Saudi aid was to support its allies in Lebanon’s elections, namely Saad Hariri, known to have had the Saudi full support in the Lebanese political arena.
As for the mentioned relief of 2006, KSA along with other Arab Gulf states reportedly sent funds for Lebanon to rebuild from the massive destruction Israel had caused in its aggression back then.
Claiming that “we” [the state] ignore where the funds went is stating the existence of corruption.
In these exposed recordings, Bou Habib is heard saying that even if the Lebanese president and prime minister agree to dismiss minister George Kordahi, they will not be able to, because they will enter a political crisis with Sleiman Frangieh, who nominated him.
He added, “If they sack him, we will not get anything and they [Saudi Arabia] will ask for more.”
Bou Habib exposed more when it came to the subject of Hezbollah and the Arab Gulf problem with Lebanon because of the Iran-backed party.
“The Americans were putting a lot of pressure during the Trump era and with Secretary of State Pompeo, asking us to get rid of Hezbollah, but how can you get rid of it? I told them once: Send 100,000 Marines and save us,” Bou Habib is heard saying in the recordings.
He further implied that Lebanon was afflicted with a disease that Saudi Arabia had repeatedly warned about: Hezbollah.
“The problem is with Saudi Arabia. If your brother is sick, you cannot tell me ‘call me when you are cured,'” he said, implying that Lebanon is sick with Hezbollah while blaming KSA.
The audio recordings circulating on social media and causing another wave of outrage, Bou Habib took to Twitter to respond to the newspaper’s report, without denying them.
“In an explanation of what was reported by some media outlets about the existence of audio recordings of a press interview, that was scheduled before the current crisis arose last Thursday, on October 28, 2021,” he tweeted from the official account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MofaLebanon.
“I am interested in emphasizing that the goal of that interview was striving to open the door to dialogue and remove impurities to reform the relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and return it to normal, which is the goal for which I work hard,” Bou Habib explained.
By that, he is indicating the tension that has existed for over two years in the relationship with Saudi Arabia before the Lebanon-Gulf Crisis due to Hezbollah‘s influence in Lebanon’s political arena.
“I had hoped that the honorable newspaper would help us to seek a solution to this crisis instead of publishing fragmented and false narratives that would add fuel to the fire [in order] to stoke attempts to build bridges of convergence, knowing that we will issue a detailed explanation on the matter,” Bou Habib concluded.
This new incident with the exposure of Lebanon’s Foreign Minister comes to further add heat to the already worsening crisis with the Arab Gulf states.
