Hariri to head to Bahrain to end deportation of Lebanese

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Sources close to caretaker PM Saad Hariri have reported that he intends to travel to Bahrain to try to end the deportation of the Lebanese .

This development comes a Lebanese foreign ministry source told al Sharq al Awsat newspaper that The Bahrain foreign ministry has ordered 10 more Lebanese to leave the country within 72 hours without providing any justification for their deportation . The source said this could be a first step that could be followed by many similar step that will affect tens of Lebanese . He added that the situation of the Lebanese expatriates in Bahrain has become unbearable .

March 14 MP Ammar Houri said on Monday that the Lebanese expatriates in Bahrain paid the price of Hezbollah’s interference in the internal affairs of the country .

“What were the consequences? Did this not result in the deportation of Lebanese from Arab states?” he asked during an interview with New TV.

Houri said Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah interfered in Bahraini domestic politics by supporting one group against the other.

Addressing the relations between Lebanon and Bahrain , Caretaker PM Saad Hariri said last Wednesday:

“We’re working together with our brothers in the Gulf, especially with our Bahraini brothers, to end the repercussions of the irresponsible and unjustified political alignment which has nothing to do with Lebanese patriotism or Arab nationalism. It’s rather part of the Iranian plot which I have described as an attempt to dominate Lebanon and the Arab region.”

He was reportedly referring to the travel ban imposed by Bahrain against travel to Lebanon when Hezbollah openly sided with the protesters against the government . Bahrain branded Hezbollah a “terrorist organization”.

Bahrain interior minister Sheikh Rashed bin Abdullah al-Khalifa linked Hezbollah to the protests during his address to the parliament on March 29

He accused the predominantly Shiite protesters of being linked to” the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, “as proven by the demonstrators’ methods as well as statements of support from the Lebanese Shiite group and Tehran.”

“All this reveals a link and the training style of Hezbollah,” the interior minister said.

Kuwaiti newspaper As-Seyyasah reported last month that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are heading toward “making a collective decision to expel all Lebanese Shiites who are connected to Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.”

“ These states received proven reports from Bahraini, French, and US intelligence that Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard members are, along with local religious figures, leading the protests in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia,” the daily quoted an anonymous Arab diplomat as saying.

Informed Hezbollah source told al Sharq al Awsat that Bahrain is targeting the Shiites in its deportation to try and put more pressure on Hezbollah. The source added that Bahrain is using Nasrallah’s speech as an excuse to implement US project in the Middle East .

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