Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) on Tuesday denounced recent remarks made by the caretaker Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Charbel Wehbe on a TV channel, which have fueled anger among the Lebanese.

“What Lebanon needs at this particular phase is wide stances and sound approaches that would contribute to resolving its crises one after the other, instead of deepening such crises and offending those who have always supported Lebanon, past and present, by making irresponsible statements,” the PSP said.

“Such statements do not reflect at all the well-established fact that the Arab Gulf states have stood with Lebanon and the Lebanese people under the toughest hardships,” the party said in a statement.

In this regard, the PSP condemned any words that would offend this fact and “the good brotherly relations with the Arab Gulf (countries)” as well as any statements that attack “our Arab brothers” in a way that lacks ethics, humanity and diplomatic protocol.

The party also noted that it would be preferable for the concerned parties to find a remedy, look into the repercussions of the current disarray and take immediate actions. This way, “we might be able to salvage Lebanon from the collapse it is currently reeling from.”

Wehbe made scathing remarks about Gulf countries in an interview late on Monday, blaming them for the spread of Islamic State.

“Those countries of love, friendship and fraternity, they got us Islamic State and planted it in the plains of Nineveh and Anbar and Palmyra,” Wehbe said in an interview with regional network Al Hurra, referring to parts of neighboring Syria and Iraq that Islamic State seized in 2014.

When asked if by “those countries” he meant Gulf states, Wehbe said he did not want to name names. But on a question about whether Gulf states had funded the Islamist movement he said: “who funded them then, was it me?”