Hezbollah Leader Claims Saudi Arabia Has Declared War On Lebanon
Hezbollah’s leader said on November 11 that Saudi Arabia had
declared war on Lebanon and his Iran-backed group, accusing Riyadh of detaining
Saad al-Hariri and forcing him to resign as Lebanon’s prime minister to
destabilize the country.
Hariri’s resignation has plunged Lebanon into crisis,
thrusting the small Arab country back to the forefront of regional rivalry
between the Sunni Muslim monarchy Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite revolutionary Iran.
France became the first Western country to indicate that
Saudi Arabia was holding Hariri against his will, saying it wished for him to
have “all his freedom of movement and be fully able to play the essential role
that is his in Lebanon.”
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, said Saudi
Arabia’s detention of Hariri, a long-time Saudi ally who declared his
resignation while in Riyadh last Saturday, was an insult to all Lebanese and he
must return to Lebanon.
“Let us say things as they are: the man is detained in Saudi
Arabia and forbidden until this moment from returning to Lebanon,” Nasrallah
said in a televised speech.
“It is clear that Saudi Arabia and Saudi officials have
declared war on Lebanon and on Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he added.
His comments mirror an accusation by Riyadh on Monday that
Lebanon and Hezbollah had declared war on the conservative Gulf Arab kingdom.
Riyadh says Hariri is a free man and he decided to resign
because Hezbollah was calling the shots in his government.
Saudi Arabia considers Hezbollah to be its enemy in
conflicts across the Middle East, including Syria and Yemen.
Western countries have looked on with alarm at the rising
regional tension.
United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned other
countries and groups against using Lebanon as vehicle for a larger proxy fight
in the Middle East, saying Washington strongly backed Lebanon’s independence
and respected Hariri as a strong partner of the United States, still referring
to him as prime minister.
“There is no legitimate place or role in Lebanon for any
foreign forces, militias or armed elements other than the legitimate security
forces of the Lebanese state,” Tillerson said in a statement released by the US
State Department.
Tillerson told reporters on Friday there was no indication
that Hariri was being held in Saudi Arabia against his will but that the United
States was monitoring the situation.
The French foreign minister said earlier on Friday that he
also believed Hariri was a free man – a statement at odds with the later French
foreign ministry comment that it wanted Hariri to have “all his freedom of
movement.”
Hariri has made no public remarks since announcing his
resignation in a speech televised from Saudi Arabia, saying he feared
assassination and accusing Iran and Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab
world.
Two top Lebanese government officials, a senior politician
close to Hariri and a fourth source told Reuters on Thursday that the Lebanese
authorities believe Hariri is being held in Saudi Arabia.
While an Israeli attack could not be ruled out entirely, he
said, it was unlikely partly because Israel knew it would pay a very high
price.
“I warn them against any miscalculation or any step to
exploit the situation,” Nasrallah said.
“Saudi will fail in Lebanon as it has failed on all fronts,”
he added.
Riyadh has advised Saudi citizens not to travel to Lebanon,
or if already there to leave as soon as possible.
Other Gulf States have also issued travel warnings.
Those steps have raised concern that Riyadh could take
measures against the tiny Arab state, which hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
Hariri’s resignation is being widely seen as part of a Saudi
attempt to counter Iran as its influence deepens in Syria and Iraq and as
Riyadh and its allies battle Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Hariri’s resignation unraveled a political deal among rival
factions that made him prime minister and President Michel Aoun, a political
ally of Hezbollah, head of state last year.
The coalition government included Hezbollah, a heavily armed
military and political organization.
Aoun told Saudi Arabia’s envoy on Friday that Hariri must
return to Lebanon and the circumstances surrounding his resignation as prime
minister while in Saudi Arabia were unacceptable, presidential sources said.
An “international support group” of countries concerned
about Lebanon, which includes the United States, Russia and France, appealed
for Lebanon “to continue to be shielded from tensions in the region.”
In a statement, they also welcomed Aoun’s call for Hariri to
return.
In comments to Reuters, top Lebanese Druze politician
Jumblatt said Lebanon did not deserve to be accused of declaring war on Saudi
Arabia.
“For decades we’ve been friends. We are a country that is
squeezed between two antagonistic interests, between Saudi Arabia and Iran,” he
said.
“The majority of Lebanese are just paying the price...
Lebanon cannot afford to declare a war against anybody,” he added.
The Saudi foreign minister accused Hezbollah of a role in
the launching of a ballistic missile at Riyadh from Yemen on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Iran’s
supply of rockets to militias in Yemen was an act of “direct military
aggression” that could be an act of war.
Nasrallah mocked the Saudi accusation that Iran and
Hezbollah were behind the firing of the missile from Yemen, saying Yemenis were
capable of building their own missiles.
Watch the video report below via RT:
Source: Reuters
Hezbollah Leader Claims Saudi Arabia Has Declared War On Lebanon
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November 14, 2017
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