Westerners shouldn't be writing the Arab LGBT+ "narrative", activists said on Friday, even while applauding Luxembourg's gay prime minister's confrontational remarks at a summit between European Union and Arab League leaders.

Xavier Bettel, speaking in a closed session, called out homophobia in the Arab world by telling the delegates that his marriage to a man could lead to his execution in some of the nations represented in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, this week. The remarks were greeted with "icy silence from some, quiet joy from others," according to a tweet by a German journalist who attended the meeting at Egypt's Red Sea resort.

LGBT+ relationships are illegal across most of the Middle East and North Africa, and gay people often risk fines, jail and even the possibility of death, according to the charity Human Rights Watch.

Tarek Zeidan, executive director of Lebanese LGBT+ rights group Helem, said it is positive that LGBT+ issues in the Arab world were being talked about at big event - but he does not believe a Westerner should be leading the conversation.

"It is a very gray area - my gut feeling is that if you are going to Egypt on a global stage and do not mention human rights abuses then you are complicit," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. "But, do I like the fact that we have to rely on a European politician to speak on our behalf … agency is important."

Zeidan said it is difficult to categorise Bettel's comments as "good or bad", but he did not believe the prime minister's remarks will cause "extra harm" for the LGBT+ community in Egypt and the Arab world. Read more via Openly