Overview

• At a packed briefing after meeting President Joseph Aoun, Tom Barrack told reporters to “act civilised” and warned that if things became “animalistic,” he would end the session.
• Lebanon’s Photojournalists’ and Press Editors’ syndicates demanded an immediate public apology and raised the prospect of boycotting the envoy’s future events.
• The Lebanese presidency expressed regret over comments delivered from its podium, and Information Minister Paul Morcos also voiced regret about the envoy’s language.
• Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Musawi condemned the remarks as a blatant insult and urged the government to summon the US ambassador for a reprimand, as several journalists called the comments racist or humiliating.
• Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, is leading a bipartisan delegation that includes Senators Lindsey Graham and Jeanne Shaheen, Congressman Joe Wilson, and Morgan Ortagus for security talks on Hezbollah, and the State Department did not immediately comment.