The media office of the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its "deep astonishment and condemnation" of the recent statements issued by the Lebanese Minister of Information, George Kordahi.
The office said - in a statement issued today, Saturday - that the position of the new Lebanese Minister of Information is "an irresponsible position towards his country and towards Arab issues alike, and he should not have plunged brotherly Lebanon into external crises."
He added, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the Lebanese government to take the necessary measures in this regard, urgently and decisively, to calm the situation, and to speed up the rift between the brothers."
A wide diplomatic crisis erupted as a result of Qardahi's statements in an interview broadcast last Monday, which was recorded before his appointment as a minister last September, in which he saw that the Houthis in Yemen were defending themselves in the face of external aggression from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
And in the face of the reactions that his statements provoked, Qardahi said that he did not intend "in any way to offend the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the Emirates, whose leadership and people I have so much love and loyalty to."
But he stressed that no one should dictate to the Lebanese what should be done about whether or not a minister remains in the government, adding that he is part of an integrated government and cannot take a decision to resign on his own.
A statement issued by the Lebanese government's presidency on Friday said that "Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Minister of Information George Kordahi - in a call - to assess the national interest and take the appropriate decision to reform Lebanon's Arab relations."