Barrack, joined by deputy envoy Morgan Ortagus, was in the Lebanese capital as part of US efforts to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. During the briefing, he scolded the journalists for calling out questions simultaneously – a common practice in news conferences – linking their behavior to what he described as a broader “problem” in the Middle East.

“Please, be quiet for a moment. And I wanna tell you something. The moment this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone. So, you want to know what’s happening? Act civilized, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what’s happening in the region,” he told the reporters.

. . . “Tom Barrack struts into Beirut like a 19th-century colonial commissioner, calls Lebanese journalists ‘animalistic,’ lectures us on ‘civilization,’ & blames it all on our ‘region.’ That’s not just arrogance, it’s racism. You don’t run this country, & you don’t get to insult its people,” Lebanese-British journalist Hala Jaber said on X.

Another journalist, Ali Hashem, called the comments “humiliating.”

“The level of arrogance US officials demonstrate in Lebanon is humiliating for the country.”

The US State Department said the situation had been mischaracterized.

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