BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 9 (UPI) -- The British envoy to Lebanon was asked to remove a blog posting praising a Shiite grand ayatollah in Lebanon who passed away during the weekend, London said.
The Shiite cleric died during the weekend. Fadlallah, called a terrorist by the United States, was widely viewed as the spiritual leader of Hezbollah after its founding in 1982, but both he and the group denied the claim.
The ayatollah was an outspoken and relentless critic of the United States and Israel. He had supported the Islamic Revolution as well as armed resistance to Israel after its invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
He later distanced himself from Hezbollah over its ties to Iran.
The British government called on Frances Guy, the British envoy to Lebanon, to remove an obituary on her personal blog praising the late ayatollah.
Guy on her Web post described the cleric as a "true man of religion" who left a "lasting impact on everyone he meets," the envoy was quoted by Hezbollah's al-Manar news station as saying.
Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior Middle East editor, was fired Wednesday after calling Fadlallah a "giant" in a Twitter post after his death.
In a memo leaked to media outlets Wednesday, CNN officials said Nasr's "credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward."
CNN officials and Nasr called the tweet an "error in judgment."
