The embassy’s opening comes after the election of Joseph Aoun as Lebanon president [Getty/file photo]
A high-level United Arab Emirates delegation was in Lebanon on Monday to make arrangements for the reopening of the Gulf Arab state’s embassy in Beirut after more than three years, state news agency WAM reported.
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. Riyadh classifies the Lebanese militant group, which has suffered heavy blows amid its war with Israel over the past year, as a “terrorist organisation”.
The delegation arrived on Sunday, 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 reopening reflects the UAE’s keenness to support stability and development in Lebanon, and its steadfast commitment to providing comprehensive support to the Lebanese people across various sectors,” the UAE foreign ministry said.
Aoun has said that countries including the UAE and Saudi Arabia are open to re-establishing diplomatic ties, Lebanese 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.
Lebanon agreed last week to extradite Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi, son of the late Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi, to the UAE.
An Egyptian-Turk, he was arrested in Lebanon following critical remarks about the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt in an online video posted while celebrating the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, according to his lawyer and Amnesty International.
