BEIRUT: Qatar’s Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiyah Thursday said Hezbollah was “killing” and “displacing” Syrians.
“To us, Hezbollah – and I have said this on more than one occasion – was a resistance party until the compass veered to Syria,” Attiyah told pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat.
“Syria in 2006 embraced Hezbollah refugees. It welcomed them, protected them and was generous with them,” he said.
He was referring to the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in south Lebanon. The conflict killed about 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and displaced one million others, many of whom fled to Syria.
“We were surprised during the Syrian revolution that Hezbollah returned the greetings by killing [the Syrian people] and displacing them from their homes,” Attiyah said. “This is our disagreement with Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah officials, including party chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, have repeatedly accused Qatar and other regional countries of politically and financially supporting jihadi groups fighting in Syria.
In the Al-Hayat report, Attiyah denied supporting terrorism, saying Qatar is a U.S. ally.
“Qatar is an ally of Washington, not only in war, but the United States is a strategic ally, especially to Qatar,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment