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Bankrupt Lebanon left to rue criticism of Saudi Arabia

George Kordahi was a little-known radio editor earlier than the Lebanese broadcaster landed a job in 2000 that will make him a star — presenting the Arabic model of Who Needs to be a Millionaire?. The sport present aired throughout the area on MBC, a channel bankrolled by Saudi Arabian royals.

But 10 years after quitting MBC, the media character who was just lately appointed Lebanon’s data minister, has simply misplaced his bankrupt nation a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} — by infuriating his former Gulf patrons. Kordahi’s criticism of Saudi and the UAE’s battle towards Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen, in a video that resurfaced late final month, has brought on a diplomatic firestorm.

Saudi Arabia responded by banning all Lebanese imports, expelling Lebanon’s ambassador and recalling its envoy in Beirut. Gulf allies additionally minimize diplomatic ties with Lebanon. Altogether, these measures have delivered a critical blow to a rustic already within the throes of its worst ever peacetime financial disaster.

In its dramatic financial collapse, Beirut has been much more depending on money flows from the Gulf, “the lung of Lebanon because the Nineteen Fifties,” mentioned Roy Badaro, a Lebanese economist. Of the latest diplomatic spat, “Lebanon can not bear this shock for an extended interval,” Badaro warned.

For the Gulf states that had financially boosted earlier Lebanese administrations, the Kordahi feedback ignited long-simmering grievances, dramatically crystallising all that had gone mistaken in a as soon as shut relationship.

The rise of Iran-backed Hizbollah, the highly effective Shia paramilitary and political social gathering, has lengthy rankled Lebanon’s Gulf allies, who’ve seen their very own affect wane. Hizbollah is allied with the Christian social gathering Marada that backs Kordahi.

After Riyadh pulled its ambassador, Saudi Overseas Minister Faisal bin Farhan informed the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV that there was a “disaster in Lebanon due to the domination of Iran’s brokers on the scene”.

“That is what considerations us and that is what makes coping with Lebanon futile for the dominion and Gulf international locations,” he mentioned. 

Some see an ‘ingratitude’ in Kordahi’s feedback. Fouad Makhzoumi, a Lebanese tycoon and Sunni politician who has enterprise pursuits within the Gulf, mentioned: “There was . . . a compilation of disgust in the direction of the Lebanese. This final thing [was] the triggering impact.”

Gulf states donated billions of {dollars} to rebuild Lebanon after its devastating 15-year civil battle led to 1990, a interval of sturdy Lebanon-Saudi relations underneath premier Rafiq Hariri. A development magnate, Hariri had made billions in Saudi and inspired the Gulf funding in Lebanon. The erosion of this relationship started along with his assassination in 2005 — a killing blamed on Iran-backed Hizbollah. The worst spat got here in 2017, when Saudi Arabia briefly detained then prime minister Saad Hariri, Rafiq’s son, briefly forcing him to resign.

Within the interview broadcast by Qatari outlet Al Jazeera, Kordahi referred to as Saudi Arabia’s proxy battle in Yemen with the Houthis a “futile” battle and described the Houthis as “defending themselves towards a international assault”. When Kordahi’s feedback went viral, the Saudis went “completely ballistic”, mentioned Heiko Wimmen, Disaster Group’s mission director for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

“Riyadh is lashing out at those that have profited after which underdelivered, betrayed, upset or manipulated it,” mentioned Emile Hokayem, senior fellow for Center East Safety on the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research. However now “Saudi leaves a vacuum, particularly within the Sunni neighborhood,” whose political factions have historically relied on Saudi Arabia for backing.

The cruel response is a extreme shock to Lebanon’s financial system. Greater than half of Lebanon’s inhabitants has been impoverished since a posh monetary and financial disaster broke out in 2019. It has solely just lately appointed a totally functioning authorities after a caretaker administration held the fort within the wake of a devastating 2020 blast in Beirut port.

The Gulf is Lebanon’s foremost export vacation spot, an necessary supply of onerous forex. Saudi Arabia was Lebanon’s largest agricultural export market in 2020, and complete exports to Saudi alone had been price nicely over $200m final yr, based on customs knowledge.

In the meantime, the central financial institution estimates some 60 per cent of remittances originate within the Gulf, the place some half 1,000,000 Lebanese expats earn petrodollars which have been Lebanon’s financial lifeline.

For the insulted Gulf, “that is an absolute, irreversible rupture”, mentioned Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati professor of political science. “So long as Hizbollah is in energy, then I feel the UAE and Saudi Arabia have determined to surrender on Lebanon.”

If the 2 Gulf powerhouses abandon Lebanon, Hizbollah “will attempt to mission within the media that they’ve received, that they’ve pushed Saudi exterior,” mentioned Makhzoumi.

Nonetheless, if the Gulf escalated, by additional limiting Lebanese enterprise or stopping cash transfers, for instance, Hizbollah’s cash “would by no means be capable to exchange it”, Makhzoumi mentioned. “So this bullshit that they don’t give a rattling, it’s good for amongst their very own individuals, to indicate that they’re Rambos. However in terms of the true nation, what number of can they assist?”

But Kordahi has refused Sunni prime minister Najib Mikati’s entreaties to resign. Hizbollah dismissed requires Kordahi to stop, calling them “a blatant assault on Lebanon, its dignity and sovereignty.” In the meantime, in Houthi-held Yemen, billboards that includes Kordahi have appeared.

“At present, in the event that they sack Kordahi, what is going to we reap from the dominion?” Lebanese international minister Abdallah Bou Habib mentioned in leaked feedback, which he didn’t deny. “Nothing. They’ll ask for extra issues.”

Kordahi was one among many Lebanese to profit from the golden years of the Gulf’s relationship with Lebanon. Millionaire, initially shot in Beirut from 2000, helped make him the “highest paid tv presenter within the Arab world”, based on his web site. A family title within the area, he secured profitable promoting contracts and launched his personal fragrance and clothes line.

But lately, Kordahi had expressed views controversial to his former Gulf paymasters. He publicly praised Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, in 2013 calling him “sensible, brave.” Kordahi additionally left MBC over his assist for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Amid the furore, Hizbollah is defiant. “Saudi Arabia is troubled as a result of it couldn’t dominate the political choice in Lebanon, regardless of the cash it paid,” mentioned Hizbollah deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem on Wednesday. “Nobody can twist the arm of Hizbollah,” and, he added, “the Lebanese individuals.”

Further reporting by Simeon Kerr in Dubai and Andrew England in London.

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