Abboud: UAE travel warnings to Lebanon political, not related to security

The press office of Tourism Minister, Fadi Abboud, said in a statement on Friday that linking the issue of UAE travel warnings to Lebanon under the pretext of the security juncture in the country was "clichéd." "The Ministry wonders if the safety of Emirati citizens is more important than the safety of Americans and Europeans, whose states did not issue any warrant like Gulf states surprisingly did," the statement read. "As to the statement given by an Emirati official to Elaph website hereby considering Abboud's utterances as ironic, the media office of the Tourism Minister is keen to clarify that what is ironic is to claim that infrastructures and electricity are the reasons why Emirati citizens are banned from coming to Lebanon," it said. Besides, Abboud reminded herein that UAE did not ban its citizens from travelling to Lebanon during July War and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. "This proves that the warrants are political and not related to security," the statement maintained. Abboud lastly hoped Emiratis would continue to support Lebanon in order to anchor national understanding and agreement instead of turning into a party in the internal equation.