Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil suffered criticism from his fellow ministers over a television interview in which he was shown saying that Lebanon did not have an ideological problem with Israel and was not against it having security.
The comments were all the more unusual as they were made to the al-Mayadin television channel, a central Hezbollah mouthpiece.
A former government minister called on Bassil to resign and he was also sharply criticized in the Lebanese parliament..
Bassil's office later claimed that al-Mayadin had distorted his comments but could not explain how or what his real intention had been in the comments.