Berri Says 'No Rift' with Kuwait after Emirate Protests over Hizbullah

Speaker Nabih Berri assured on Tuesday that relations with the Gulf emirate of Kuwait are “not broken as some believe,” and stressed that “things have been addressed,” the State-run National News Agency reported.

Praising Kuwait, Berri said: “There is no Lebanese individual or entity that denies Kuwait's prince, council, people, reconstruction, development, sacrifice and participation in steadfastness.

“To those who believe that ties are broken, we tell them it is not true and that things have been addressed. Let them rest assured that we need no delegation to settle the matter," said the Speaker.

Late in July, a Mustaqbal bloc delegation led by ex-PM Fouad Saniora visited Kuwaiti Ambassador to Lebanon Abdul-Al al-Qinai to condemn alleged Hizbullah involvement in a “terrorist cell” that has been busted in the Gulf emirate.

The bloc had stated that “the act would only lead to sabotaging ties between Lebanon and the brotherly state of Kuwait, which was among the first countries to embrace Lebanese expats.”

The supreme court in Sunni-ruled Kuwait, which has a sizable Shiite minority,convicted earlier in July 21, Shiites of forming a "terrorist cell" with ties to Iran and Hizbullah and plotting attacks in the Gulf state.

Kuwait has protested to Lebanon over the alleged training of the cell members by Hizbullah, which has ministers in the Lebanese government.

It called on Lebanon to take "the necessary measures to curb these disgraceful practices" by Hizbullah as it is a partner in the government, ambassador al-Qinai had said.