KUWAIT CITY, 31 October 2021, (TON): Kuwait gave Lebanon’s ambassador 48 hours to leave the emirate on Saturday, a day after Saudi Arabia made a similar move over a minister’s comments about its war in Yemen.

The diplomatic row, which has also seen Bahrain expel Lebanon’s envoy, has dealt another blow to Lebanon, already in the midst of crippling political and economic crises.

Kuwait’s foreign ministry said “Kuwait asks Lebanese envoy to leave country in 48 hours.”

The statement added that Kuwait’s top diplomat to Beirut was also being recalled.

The dispute intensified on Friday after the broadcast this week of an interview in which Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahicriticised the war in Yemen.

In his remarks recorded in August but aired Kordahi called the seven-year war in the Arabian Peninsula country “futile” and said it was “time for it to end”.

Kordahi said Yemen’s Huthi rebels were “defending themselves against an external aggression”, adding that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by a Saudi-led coalition.