{"id":2427,"date":"2025-08-28T18:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T18:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/us-envoy-says-calling-lebanon-reporters-animalistic-was-inappropriate\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T18:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T18:36:16","slug":"us-envoy-says-calling-lebanon-reporters-animalistic-was-inappropriate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/us-envoy-says-calling-lebanon-reporters-animalistic-was-inappropriate\/","title":{"rendered":"US envoy says calling Lebanon reporters \u2018animalistic\u2019 was \u2018inappropriate\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

United States diplomat Tom Barrack has expressed regret for calling Lebanese journalists \u201canimalistic\u201d, days after his comments stirred outrage across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

However, in a Thursday interview with social media personality Mario Nawfal, Barrack repeated his call for\u00a0Lebanese reporters to be \u201ccivilised\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He nevertheless conceded he should have been more \u201ctolerant\u201d in his remarks to the reporters who shouted questions after he met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Animalistic\u2019 was a word that I didn\u2019t use in a derogatory manner. I\u2019m just saying: Can we calm down? Can we find some tolerance and kindness? Let\u2019s be civilised,\u201d said Barrack, who serves as ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria and Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was inappropriate to do when the media is just doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrack, who is of Lebanese descent, used the podcast appearance to address the remarks he made on Tuesday, after he emerged from his meeting with Aoun at the presidential palace near Beirut.<\/p>\n

As he met reporters in the briefing room, he was met with a barrage of questions that left him visibly irritated.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease be quiet for a moment,\u201d Barrack said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I want to tell you something: The moment this starts becoming chaotic \u2014 like, animalistic \u2014 we\u2019re gone. So, you want to know what\u2019s happening? Act civilised, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what is happening in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those comments sparked widespread anger, with some critics arguing that Barrack\u2019s remarks sum up Washington\u2019s condescending approach to the region<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Disarming Hezbollah<\/h3>\n

It is not uncommon for reporters to shout questions at officials before or after diplomatic meetings. In the US, the practice is known as a journalistic \u201cspray\u201d.<\/p>\n

Barrack has repeatedly visited Lebanon as part of an effort to secure an agreement that would see the disarming of Hezbollah<\/a> in exchange for promises that Israel would fully withdraw from the country and end its daily attacks.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Lebanese government passed a resolution tasking the army with formulating a plan to remove Hezbollah\u2019s weapons by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah rebuked the decision, saying that the group will<\/a> \u201ctreat [the resolution] as if it doesn\u2019t exist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israel \u2014 which receives billions of military dollars in US aid \u2014 has continued its daily attacks across Lebanon, effectively preventing the residents of south Lebanon from returning to their border towns, many of which have been obliterated in the bombings.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military still occupies five areas inside Lebanese territory, as well as the disputed Shebaa Farms area that Lebanon claims as its own.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah \u2014 battered from last year\u2019s war that killed<\/a> its top political and military leadership \u2014 has largely abided by the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024 despite Israeli violations.<\/p>\n

But it has rejected calls to disarm, arguing that its weapons protect Lebanon from Israel\u2019s expansionist aims.\u00a0The group has accused the Lebanese government of following US and Israeli diktats.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah also maintains that the Lebanese military alone is unable to defend southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The Lebanese government, however, has said that only the state can protect all of its citizens, insisting that the Lebanese Armed Forces must be the only side with weapons in the country.<\/p>\n

The impasse risks internal confrontations within Lebanon, which has been reeling from security and economic crises for years.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah\u2019s response<\/h2>\n

Earlier this week, Ibrahim Moussawi<\/a>, a member of Hezbollah\u2019s parliamentary bloc, slammed Barrack\u2019s comments to journalists, saying that they represent the \u201cfoolishness and arrogance\u201d of the US approach to Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis envoy embodies, with absolute honesty, the reality of the United States of America and the essence of the barbaric, aggressive philosophy upon which it was founded,\u201d Moussawi said.<\/p>\n

He also criticised the Lebanese government for failing to take a strong stance against Barrack, including by summoning the US ambassador to Beirut.<\/p>\n

Already this week, Barack cut short a trip<\/a> to south Lebanon, where Hezbollah enjoys popular support, amid protests over his statements.<\/p>\n

This was not the first time, however, that Barrack had provoked controversy in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Last month, he suggested that Lebanon could become part of greater Syria to highlight the dangers that the country is facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSyrians say Lebanon is our beach resort. So we need to move. And I know how frustrated the Lebanese people are. It frustrates me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The assertion was a rare comment by a Western official questioning the viability of Lebanon as a country.<\/p>\n

Barack later said that the US policy is to support Syria<\/a> and Lebanon as two \u201cequal and sovereign\u201d neighbours.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy comments yesterday praised Syria\u2019s impressive strides, not a threat to Lebanon,\u201d he wrote in a social media post in response to the backlash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States diplomat Tom Barrack has expressed regret for calling Lebanese journalists \u201canimalistic\u201d, days after his comments stirred outrage across the Middle East. However, in a Thursday interview with social media personality Mario Nawfal, Barrack repeated his call for\u00a0Lebanese reporters to be \u201ccivilised\u201d. He nevertheless conceded he should have been more \u201ctolerant\u201d in his remarks … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}