The crisis erupted on Friday when Saudi Arabia gave the Lebanese ambassador 48 hours to leave the country, recalled his envoy from Beirut and suspended all imports from Lebanon.

Saudi Foreign Ministry said measures were taken after “insulting” remarks by Lebanese minister on war in Yemen, but also because of influence from Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah .

The group, he said, controls Lebanese ports and “hijacks” government decision-making in Beirut.

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait were quick to follow suit.

The crisis is yet another blow to Lebanon, a country in the throes of financial and political turmoil where a fragile government is struggling to secure international aid, especially from wealthy Arab neighbors.

But the words of Information Minister Georges Kordahi, in an interview recorded in August and broadcast on Monday, criticizing the Saudi Arabia-led military intervention against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, undermined those efforts.

Kordahi said the Houthis were “defending themselves (…) against external aggression”, prompting furious reprimands from Saudi Arabia and its allies and calls for Lebanon to resign.

Analyst Karim Bitar said Kordahi’s remarks were just a trigger for an impending geopolitical confrontation.

The escalation “has very little to do with what this mediocre Minister of Information said … (and) everything to do with the Saudi-Iranian standoff that has been going on for a few years.”

– ‘Battlefields’ – “Kordahi was just a pretext for something that had been in preparation for a long time,” he said.

Lebanon is “one of the battlegrounds between Iran and Saudi Arabia” along with Syria, Yemen and Iraq, where the two regional rivals support opposing sides, Bitar added.

Riyadh’s decision also reflects the kingdom’s determination to push Lebanon “to take a tougher line on Hezbollah,” he said.

Hezbollah wields considerable influence in Lebanon, where it holds seats in parliament, and has been singled out as a terrorist group by Saudi Arabia and much of the West.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he “regrets” the Saudi decision and urged Riyadh to reconsider his decision.

He did not explicitly call for Kordahi’s resignation, but said he was not speaking for the government.

He urged the minister to “take into consideration the national interest of Lebanon (…) in order to calm ties with the Gulf countries”.

Kordahi was appointed by the Marada Movement, a Christian party allied with Hezbollah and led by Suleiman Franjieh.

The minister refused to apologize, as Hezbollah and Franjieh rejected calls for his dismissal.

With Lebanon in the throes of an economic and financial crisis – considered by the World Bank to be one of the worst in the world since the 1850s – the diplomatic feud becomes all the more damaging.

– “Paying the Price” – It comes as Sunni backbone of Shia-majority Saudi Arabia and Iran have been holding talks for months to ease tensions after a five-year rift.

Big rivals severed diplomatic ties in 2016 after protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic following the kingdom’s execution of a revered Shia cleric.

Bitar said the latest crisis is also linked to these negotiations between Riyadh and Tehran, with Lebanon “paying the price”.

“When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers and Lebanon for the umpteenth time in its history is the grass that suffers when these proxy wars become more intense,” he said.

Lebanon’s diplomatic fallout with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait also comes at a critical time for the small Mediterranean country.

Mikati’s fragile government has not met for three weeks amid Hezbollah-led campaign to remove judge investigating last year’s devastating explosion in Beirut port, accusing him of party taken political.

“Lebanon needs a cabinet and does not gain anything by shooting itself in the foot as it finds itself in the middle of a regional clash,” said Michael Young, analyst at Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center.

“Since the Saudis regard Lebanon as an Iranian map, they believe it makes sense to behave towards the country” in its current way, he added on Twitter.

But he warned that “by isolating Lebanon, they will only ensure that Iran and its local proxies tighten their control” over the country.