United States | News & Politics

Journalists in Lebanon have demanded an apology from a senior US envoy after he told them to “act civilized” and not be “animalistic”.

As reporters shouted questions after the US delegation’s meeting with the Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, on Tuesday, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, stepped up to the podium in the packed room and said: “We’re going to have a different set of rules ... please be quiet for a moment.

“The moment that this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone,” he said.

“Act civilised, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what’s happening in the region,” added Barrack, who has recently been leading talks with Lebanese officials.