Ministry Says Berri Daughter's Qatar Job 'Not a Deal with Bassil'

The Foreign Ministry on Sunday denied an al-Akhbar newspaper report claiming that the appointment of Ambassador Farah Berri as acting charge d’affaires at Lebanon’s embassy in Qatar was a “political deal between ex-minister Jebran Bassil and Speaker Nabih Berri at the expense of the treasury.”

Farah Berri is the parliament speaker’s daughter.

The Ministry clarified that the ambassador was tasked with her new mission after an embezzlement operation was unveiled at the Lebanese embassy in Qatar.

“Lebanon’s ambassador to Qatar was summoned pending the end of investigations and the identification of the culprits, and seeing as (Farah Berri) serves at the central administration, she was chosen to head the mission in Qatar pending the end of investigations and the carrying out of diplomatic appointments in the coming period,” the Ministry said.

“Her appointment does not put further burdens on the treasury but rather cuts costs seeing as her daily salary will be lower than the ambassador’s monthly salary,” the Ministry added.

It also lamented that “it is regrettable to mislead the public opinion with claims about deals at the expense of public administrations instead of focusing on the process of combating the theft of public funds and what the Ministry did in this regard, from referring the file to the competent judicial authorities to putting those accused in this case on trial.”