Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham received an apology Thursday from the Lebanese ambassador over remarks that the country's media is controlled by Zionists.
Graham met Thursday with Lebanese Ambassador Raymond Baaklini to reprimand him for the remarks he made in a Montreal-based Arab language newspaper.
In the interview Baaklini said Ottawa banned Hizbullah due to pressure from a "Zionist party" that he claimed "controls 90% of the Canadian media."
Baaklini wrote Graham late Thursday, saying, "I regret that my comments caused offence and that they created a controversy." In the letter to Graham, Baaklini apologized for attacking Canadian police and said Lebanon respects Judaism.
According to The Globe and Mail, the Canadian government resisted demands from the local Jewish Congress and prominent media executive Israel Asper to expel the Baaklini. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
