Lebanon
Statements by the US ambassador have spawned a mini-crisis in the country.
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Lebanese diplomacy will summon the US ambassador to Beirut on Monday after outspoken remarks against the Shiite Hezbollah movement have been the subject of a controversial injunction by a local judge.
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“Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti summoned US Ambassador Dorothy Shea tomorrow (Monday) at 3:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT) in light of her recent statements,” said the ANI news agency.
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In an interview with Saudi television channel Al-Hadath on Friday, Shea expressed Washington’s “grave concerns” “over the role of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization”.
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The Shiite movement has “siphoned billions of dollars that should have gone into government coffers (…) and hindered certain economic reforms that Lebanon desperately needs”, she accused, while the country is in plagued by its worst economic crisis in about 30 years.
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Saturday, an interim judge in the city of Tire (south), Mohamad Mazeh, decided to prohibit, under penalty of sanctions, the Lebanese and foreign media working in Lebanon from interviewing, for one year, Mrs. Shea, a decision immediately greeted by Hezbollah.
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Lebanese authorities must “take immediate measures to compel this ambassador to respect international law,” said Hassan Fadlallah, deputy of the powerful Shiite party, on Sunday, referring to the Geneva Convention on diplomatic relations.
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The Mazeh judgment also sparked outrage among the media and social media, with some seeing it as political pressure on the justice system and an attack on freedom of expression. A judicial source told AFP that Mr. Mazeh had “gone beyond his prerogatives”.
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Country of 18 religious communities, Lebanon is governed by a complex system of power sharing where Justice is often the subject of political and community tensions.
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For the US State Department, this is a “pathetic” attempt at “censorship” on the part of Hezbollah.
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Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad for his part stressed the need to ensure press freedom.
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Judge Mazeh, for his part, threatened to resign on Sunday if he were to be brought before the judicial inspectorate, after information to that effect relayed by local media.
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The incident comes amid growing tensions between Washington and the Shiite party, which recently accused the United States of seeking to cause famine in Lebanon and of banning the inflow of dollars, the currency on which the Lebanese pound is indexed. .
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(AFP)
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