BEIRUT (Dispatches) – The deputy head of Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah says Bahrain has committed “a historical crime” by normalizing ties with the Zionist regime, stressing that the kingdom would soon recognize that the normalization deal only serves the interests of Tel Aviv.
Speaking at a ceremony in Beirut on Wednesday, Sheikh Naim Qassem described occupying regime’s prime minister Naftali Bennett’s recent visit to Manama as an “act of treachery committed by the Bahraini leaders.”
“If they think normalization would protect them from [consequences of shirking] their responsibilities towards their people and towards the rights that are wasted, they are wrong”, he said, adding that “if they think that Israel will offer them something, they are wrong.”
He pointed to the regime’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and wreaking havoc there, and said the occupying regime seeks to “own all the land” by killing and arresting Palestinians.
“Bahrain has committed a historical crime with normalization,” Qassem said, adding that leaders of the Manama regime and those of all the Persian Gulf states that have normalized or want to normalize ties with the regime would soon find that they have lost everything, including the trust of their peoples as well as their conscience.
Elsewhere is his remarks, the Hezbollah official emphasized that the honorable and free nations as well as the resistance would ultimately emerge victorious in the confrontation with the regime.
Bennett arrived in Manama on Monday in the highest-level visit since the two sides normalized their relations under a 2020 U.S.-brokered deal.
Bahraini protesters set the Zionist regime’s flag on fire during fresh protests against Bennett’s visit.
Pictures and footage that emerged from the Tuesday rallies in the capital Manama and elsewhere across the country showed protesters setting the flag ablaze, trampling on it, and holding up placards that read, “Naftali go out.”
The rallies took place amid strict security measures adopted by the country’s security forces.
The security forces cracked down on the demonstrations in the eastern Bahraini island of Sitra, arresting a number of the protesters.
The participants in al-Musalla near the capital chanted slogans against the kingdom’s ruling Al Khalifah regime and demanded an end to normalization of the country’s relations with the occupying regime.