A high-level Emirati delegation is in Lebanon to make arrangements for the reopening of the UAE's embassy in Beirut after more than three years, state news agency WAM reported on Monday.
Beirut, Lebanon © Mena Today
A high-level Emirati delegation is in Lebanon to make arrangements for the reopening of the UAE's embassy in Beirut after more than three years, state news agency WAM reported on Monday.
The arrival of the delegation on Sunday came a day after UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and newly elected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun agreed to take the necessary steps to reopen the embassy.
The UAE withdrew its diplomats from Lebanon and closed the embassy in October 2021, aligning with Saudi Arabia after Lebanon's then-information minister criticised the Saudi-led coalition's involvement in Yemen.
The Saudi foreign minister at the time pointed to Hezbollah's dominance over Lebanese politics but most of the group's top leadership has since been killed and many of its strongholds across Lebanon lie in ruins after a more than a year-long war with Israel.
President Aoun has said that countries including the UAE and Saudi Arabia are open to reestablishing diplomatic ties, Lebanon's Deputy parliament speaker Elias Bou Saab said in a televised speech.
"The UAE will reopen its embassy very soon...thus there is hope for us to start a new page in Lebanon," Bou Saab said.
Reporting by Maya Gebeily in Beirut and Jana Choukeir in Dubai
The past few days have unfolded like a geopolitical drama of historic proportions in Lebanon, where Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia militia long considered untouchable, appears to be teetering on the edge of a seismic shift.
KKR and I Squared Capital are among global asset managers bidding for a district cooling business owned by Abu Dhabi's Multiply Group, part of a $1.5 trillion empire overseen by one of the UAE's most powerful Sheikhs, three sources said.
In a defiant speech on Friday evening, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, insisted that the group “will not allow anyone to disarm it,” rejecting growing internal calls for the Lebanese state to reclaim exclusive control over the country’s weapons.
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