Lebanon’s PM Mikati to meet Kuwait’s foreign minister al-Sabah in Beirut

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati will meet Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah on Saturday in Beirut, in the first such visit by a senior Gulf official since a diplomatic spat last year.

In October Kuwait, alongside Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, expelled Lebanese diplomats and recalled their own envoys following a minister’s critical comments about the Arab Coalition military intervention in Yemen.

Sheikh Ahmad would meet PM Mikati in the evening, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The Gulf Cooperation Council had called on Lebanon in December to prevent Iran-backed Hezbollah group from conducting “terrorist operations,” strengthen its military and ensure that arms were limited to state institutions.

Sheikh Ahmad is expected to meet Hezbollah allies President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Sunday, according to Lebanese official sources.

Aoun and Mikati have called for dialogue with Saudi Arabia to resolve the diplomatic crisis, which has piled onto an economic meltdown now in its third year.