Lebanon FM lodges compliant against Saudi online newspaper over fake news

Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has filed a complaint against a Saudi Arabic-language online newspaper after it falsely claimed that he had held a clandestine meeting with a high-ranking Israeli official in the Russian capital city of Moscow.

Bassil lodged the complaint with the General Prosecutor's Office on Thursday against the owner of London-based Elaph news portal, and brought charges of defamation and slander against the defendant.

The report “greatly damaged the reputation of the plaintiff in addition to his political and social status as it accused him of contacting and communicating with the Israeli enemy,” the complaint read.

Meanwhile, sources at the Lebanese Foreign Ministry have categorically denied the report, describing it as “fabricated.”

Antoine Constantine, a senior communication advisor to the Lebanese foreign minister, also told Beirut-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network that “the report of the alleged meeting between Bassil and an Israeli official is outrageously funny.”

“The report is aimed at undermining the Lebanese government's position, which defends national rights and Bassil's efforts to weather (US President Donald) Trump's decisions. We will begin to take legal actions against the publishers of the report, who are part of malicious campaigns against Lebanon,” Constantine pointed out.

In late October 2018, Trump’s administration imposed a new round of sanctions on the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, targeting individuals and international organizations that do business with the group.

SS