BEIRUT: Tele Liban’s broadcast of anti-Saudi remarks by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah drew a wave of reactions Wednesday, as the station’s head insisted the media outlet was fulfilling its duties to viewers.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri lambasted Nasrallah Wednesday for “luring” state-run Tele Liban into airing “offensive” remarks against Saudi Arabia.
“All Lebanon needed, after all the problems Hezbollah has caused the country, was for it to plunge Tele Liban into a media and political boxing ring and lure it into the [crossfire], with a show of insults against Saudi Arabia and its leadership,” Hariri said in a statement.
Information Minister Ramzi Joreige, a March 14 minister, insisted that Tele Liban violated Lebanon’s policy of dissociation by broadcasting Nasrallah’s speech, alleging that it had made contact with the Syrian station for permission to air the interview. He apologized to Saudi Ambassador Ali Awad Asiri.
Talal Makdessi, chair of Tele Liban’s board of directors, said it was the station’s duty to broadcast the speech, which he claimed was aired in coordination with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar, and not the Syrian television station.
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