BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A
high-ranking Hezbollah official has blasted a weeks-long diplomatic dispute between Lebanon and Persian Gulf countries in the wake of a Lebanese minister’s condemnation of the devastating Saudi war on Yemen, stating that Saudi Arabia’s main objective out of the crisis is to undermine the Lebanese resistance group and subdue the Arab country.
“We do not seek a conflict at all, neither with Saudi Arabia nor with any other Persian Gulf country. We hope Lebanon’s relations with its Arab brethren stay close and intimate, but not at the expense of our sovereignty and dignity,” vice president of the executive council of Hezbollah, Sheikh Ali Da’moush, said at a ceremony in the southern Lebanese village of Aaitit on Sunday.
Tensions rose between Riyadh and Beirut following critical comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi in an interview regarding the Saudi war on Yemen.
During the interview, aired by an online show affiliated with Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network, Kordahi called the Saudi-led war in Yemen “futile”, and said that Yemeni army forces and their allied fighters from Popular Committees are defending themselves.
He underlined that some U.S. lawmakers and officials have frequently criticized the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen as well as the brutal siege against the impoverished nation, but Saudi authorities do not dare to respond.
“Did Saudi Arabia dare to recall its ambassador, expel the U.S. ambassador from Riyadh, and demand the resignation of those representatives from [the U.S.] Congress? Definitely not!”
“On the contrary, Saudi Arabia is tough on Lebanon and is escalating a diplomatic dispute with the country. It is waging a futile war against the Lebanese nation, and some insiders are even assisting Saudi Arabia to achieve its goals,” Sheikh Da’moush pointed out.
He stated that the main purpose of Saudi Arabia’s actions is to constrain the anti-Zionist resistance front, change Lebanon’s internal equations, and create a new political structure in order to weaken Hezbollah and completely subjugate Lebanon to the Riyadh regime’s demands.
Sheikh Da’moush further underscored that the vicious campaign against Hezbollah has failed.
“We advise those who seek to weaken the Hezbollah resistance group to renounce their acts, as the movement is well-established and deeply-rooted (in Lebanon), and no one can either depose it or downplay its role in supporting Lebanon,” the senior Hezbollah official pointed out.