BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is urging calm after a video emerged showing the foreign minister calling Lebanon’s powerful parliament speaker a “thug” in a closed meeting.
The leaked video which emerged Sunday comes amid an escalating dispute between President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri over a decree that promoted a number of Lebanese army officers.
The foreign minister, Gibran Bassil, is Aoun’s son-in-law and heads his Free Patriotic Movement party. The footage drew the ire of Berri’s political allies, who lashed out at Bassil. Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil described Bassil in a tweet as “lowly” and a “political dwarf.”
Hariri on Monday said “Lebanon does not need more escalation” and said he would exert all efforts to calm the political rhetoric in the country.
Leaked video causes political storm in Lebanon
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