BEIRUT: If the Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemen directed its warplanes towards Israel, Hezbollah would join it, party chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah declared Friday night, accusing Riyadh of abandoning Palestine.
Nasrallah, speaking a day after the Saudi Arabia launched a surprise military operation against rebel Houthis in Yemen, also rejected claims that Iran posed a threat to the Gulf.
“If the war was against Israel we would have been partners in the war but not if its against an Arab peoples,” Nasrallah said during a televised speech.
Nasrallah denounced Saudi Arabia for leading a campaign against Yemen, but failing to take action against Israel over the decades-long conflict.
“The Palestinian people are still calling on you,” he said, noting that a large portion of the population are Sunnis and yet their calls for assistance were not met by unified force likes of the coalition organized against the Houthis.
He dismissed arguments supporting the coalition that it was reclaiming the legitimacy of Yemen's President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi and protecting the Yemeni people, saying that these arguments should be used instead to justify action in Palestine.
He also rejected the claim that Iran was threatening to intervene and control the region. “They consider that we should reclaim the land from Iran, and this is the biggest lie,” he said.
“Where is the evidence that Yemen is occupied by Iran,” saying that claims of Iranian bases and armies in Yemen is a lie.
Even claims that Iran is controlling Yemen through political influence and not through military force, is a lie.
There is a problem in Saudi Arabia's mentality in that it doesn't respect the will of free peoples. They regard everyone as followers and they can't have an independent will, Nasrallah added.
“This mentality leads to wrong policies... and accumulating failures.”
Saudi Arabias “faulty policies” are opening up the region to Iranian influence. “You are pushing the people of the region to Iran,” he said.
He expressed hopes that “this new political division in the Gulf” doesn’t lead to negative repercussions in Lebanon, especially with regards to the Lebanese government.
The ongoing dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah will remain on track despite sharp differences over the conflict in Yemen, since it served national interests and seeks to decrease sectarian tensions, he added.
He said that figures in the Future Movement have opposed dialogue since the start and continue to undermine talks through negative positions and statements.
He called on the resistance to employ “patience” and not respond to accusations by the Future Movement since they serve to increase sectarian tensions, saying Hezbollah doesn’t want to assist them in achieving this goal.
With regards to Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Nasrallah said that he isn’t concerned with developments at the U.N.-backed court since the party doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the tribunal.
“We will not comment on anything said in the court... since our opposition to the court is clear,” he said, after former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora earlier this week accused Hezbollah of plotting assassination attempts against Rafik Hariri.
Nasrallah dismissed accusations that Iran was blocking the election of a president that doesn’t express support to Tehran.
“Those responsible for disruption... is Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The problem in Lebanon, is Saudi Arabia has vetoed the election of FPM chief Michel Aoun, “so why are you putting the blame on Iran.”
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