Lebanon's president in Qatar for talks over Gulf crisis

Lebanon’s president has arrived in Qatar to attend the opening ceremony of an Arab soccer tournament amid an unprecedented diplomatic crisis between Beirut and oil-rich Gulf nations

BEIRUT -- Lebanon’s president arrived in Qatar Monday for the opening ceremony of an Arab soccer tournament amid - and for talks on an precedented diplomatic crisis between Beirut and oil-rich Gulf nations.

President Michel Aoun’s face-to-face meetings with the emir of Qatar and other Qatari officials come as Lebanon is sinks deeper into its economic crisis, the worst in its modern history. The country's financial meltdown, coupled with multiple other crises, has plunged more than three quarters of the nation’s population of six million, including a million Syrian refugees, into poverty.

Aoun is expected to discuss the tense relations between Lebanon and gulf nations led by Saudi Arabia during his meetings in Doha. Aoun has repeatedly said that Lebanon wants excellent relations with Saudi Arabia, which lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Aoun is a political ally of the Shiite militant group.

Saudi Arabia, a traditional backer of Lebanon, withdrew its ambassador from Beirut and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave last month following televised comments by George Kordahi, Lebanon’s information minister. Kordahi said the war in Yemen was futile and called it an aggression by the Saudi-led coalition.