BEIRUT (Al Manar) – Head of
Hezbollah’s Executive Council, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, has stressed that the resistance movement will continue to defend Lebanon’s dignity, warning the Saudi royals against threatening the country.
“We will pluck out the eyes threatening Lebanon,” Sayyed Safieddine said.
In response to Saudi FM remarks about Hezbollah domination in Lebanon’s political decision-making system, the Hezbollah top official said if Hezbollah has been ruling Lebanon, the nation would be in a totally different situation.
Sayyed Safieddine added that the Saudi regime is trying to stifle all the political voices in Lebanon that opposes its plan to normalize ties with the Zionist regime by launching the ongoing diplomatic campaign against the Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi.
The Saudi-Lebanon row began after Kordahi said during a television program, which was aired last Monday, that the 2015-present Saudi Arabia-led war on Yemen was an act of aggression by Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the kingdom’s most significant ally in the military campaign.
He called the war “absurd,” saying it had to stop because he was opposed to wars between Arabs. The minister also said the Yemeni army forces and their allied fighters from the Popular Committees were “defending themselves ... against an external aggression.”
The Saudi kingdom subsequently recalled its ambassador from Beirut and expelled the Lebanese envoy from the Saudi capital.
Safieddine said a day earlier that the diplomatic crisis between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia is rooted in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)’s “fear” of the liberation of the Yemeni strategic city of Ma’rib amid Beirut’s support for Yemenis during the Saudi war.
He said in a statement that it is not “reasonable” to think that the diplomatic crisis is related to remarks made by the Lebanese information minister “but rather it is greater than that.”
“What is happening in Saudi Arabia is a major thing, as the Saudis and the Persian Gulf [countries] in general, who have followed the path of forming relations with Israel, cannot bear a voice from Lebanon and others who will criticize them in the future over the Saudi-Israeli relations, which will be made public in the coming days,” he added.
The senior Hezbollah official said that the Saudi Crown Prince lives in a state of “dilemma and anxiety” and will have to face a great situation after the fall of Ma’rib, emphasizing that MBS is fearful of losing all his illusions.