Lebanese diplomacy will summon the American ambassador to Beirut on Monday (June 29th) after outspoken remarks against the Shiite Hezbollah movement, the subject of a controversial injunction by a local judge.
«Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti summons US Ambassador Dorothy Shea tomorrow (Monday) at 3:00 p.m. in light of his recent statements“Said the ANI news agency.
In an interview Friday with Saudi television channel Al-Hadath, Dorothy Shea said “serious concerns»From Washington«on the role of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization” The Shiite movement has “siphoned off billions of dollars that should have gone into government coffers (…) and hampered certain economic reforms that Lebanon desperately needs“, She accused, while the country is in the grip of its worst economic crisis in about 30 years.
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, Dorothy Shea, a decision immediately greeted by Hezbollah.
Lebanese authorities must “take immediate action to compel this Ambassador to respect international law“Hassan Fadlallah, deputy of the powerful Shiite party, urged on Sunday, referring to the Geneva convention on diplomatic relations.
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.
For the US State Department, this is an attempt “pathetic” of “censureFrom Hezbollah. Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad for his part stressed the need to ensure press freedom.
The incident comes amid mounting 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 pound is indexed. Lebanese.
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