MP quits to ease tensions

Lebanon’s information minister has resigned, raising hopes for easing an unprecedented diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab nations that has compounded the country’s multiple crises. George Kordahi, in comments aired in late October, was critical of the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Saudi Arabia, which has been joined by other Gulf Arab states in a boycott of Lebanon, is unhappy with the dominance of the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group and its allies on the levers of power in Lebanon. The kingdom has recalled its ambassador and banned all Lebanese imports, affecting hundreds of businesses and cutting off hundreds of millions in foreign currency to Lebanon. This has aggravated Lebanon’s economic crisis, which has plunged more than three-quarters of the nation’s population of 6 million, including a million Syrian refugees, into poverty.