KUWAIT: Kuwait strongly condemns recent statements by Lebanon's Minister of Economy and Trade Amin Salam regarding its foreign loans' policy, Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said in a statement on Saturday.

Salam had made an appeal to Kuwait on the anniversary of the Beirut blast on August 3 to fund the rebuilding of the wheat silos that were destroyed by the explosion. The silos located in Beirut Port were built in the late 1960s with help from Kuwait through a loan from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. In his statement on Thursday, Salam was quoted as saying that a decision to release funds from KFAED to rebuild the silos can be taken at Kuwait's Foreign Ministry "with a stroke of a pen".

"Such statements go against basic political norms and reflect insufficient understanding of the nature of decision making in the state of Kuwait," Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah said. "Decision making is based on constitutional and institutional bases, including decisions related to humanitarian grants and loans that Kuwait gives to other countries."

While Kuwait takes pride in its historical record of foreign aid, it categorically rejects any intervention in its internal affairs and decisions, the foreign minister added, urging the Lebanese minister to retract his statement "out of keenness to preserve the strong relations between the two countries."