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Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Abdullatif al-Zayani takes part in the 126th session of the Supreme Council of the GCC Foreign Ministers on June 2, 2013 in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
KUWAIT: Gulf Arab countries issued a travel warning for Lebanon yesterday, telling their citizens to avoid what is a popular tourist destination for the region after a spillover of violence from neighbouring Syria.
Sectarian violence fuelled by Syria’s civil war has broken out in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli and, last month, two rockets fired at southern Beirut, controlled by the Shia Hezbollah militia, brought the violence deeper into Lebanon.
Yesterday, Syrian government forces backed by Hezbollah fighters seized control of the Syrian town of Qusayr, near the Lebanese border. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) told its citizens that the unstable security situation in Lebanon “makes the presence of GCC nationals there unsafe”, GCC Secretary-General Abdulatif Al Zayani said in a statement, without elaborating.
Visitors from Gulf states account for the bulk of Lebanon’s vital tourism income, which has been hit hard by the unrest in Syria. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have already issued their own travel warnings for Lebanon. The GCC also includes Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman. REUTERS
