Emirati billionaire Al Habtoor says he is afraid to set foot in Lebanon

* Emirati billionaire Al Habtoor says he is afraid to set foot in Lebanon Al Habtoor withdrew investments in Lebanon on safety concerns * Gulf has spurned Lebanon for years on Hezbollah influence * Says will reconsider investing if Lebanon's security improves By Maha El Dahan and Jana Choukeir DUBAI, - United Arab Emirates billionaire Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, who this week scrapped his investments in Lebanon, said the country was still not safe and that he had been threatened with being "slaughtered and killed" last year. Al Habtoor has not visited Lebanon - a thriving banking hub dubbed the Switzerland of the Middle East before its ruinous civil war erupted in 1975 - in almost two decades, and told Reuters a threat to his life had caused him to abandon plans to launch a media venture in Beirut in 2024. Al Habtoor had previously expressed optimism that a new government being formed could chart a fresh course for Lebanon, which has been battered since 2019 by a deep economic crisis and became a battleground between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024. The United Arab Emirates and other Sunni Gulf states had spurned the country for years because of the Iranian influence, although Al Habtoor had held on to his investments.