BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Wednesday assailed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah for “luring” Lebanon’s official television channel into airing his “offensive” remarks against Saudi Arabia.
“All Lebanon needed after all the problems Hezbollah has accumulated on Lebanon was to plunge Tele Liban into the media and political boxing ring, and lure it into the trap of participation in a show of insults against Saudi Arabia and its leadership broadcast by Syria’s official Al-Ikhbariya TV two days ago, through the infamous interview with Hezbollah’s secretary-general,” Hariri said in a statement.
He said his main concern was the use of government-run media outlets as platforms “to offend an Arab country and insult Saudi Arabia, its officials and its role ... for the sake of Iran and its regional policies.”
“Silence in this regard is unacceptable and unjustified, whether under the pretext of abiding by the necessities of the dialogue [with Hezbollah] that we wanted and still want with all honesty and sincerity, or under the pretext of making national interest prevail over any foreign interest,” he said.
In an interview with Al-Ikhbariya TV Monday, Nasrallah again denounced Saudi Arabia for spearheading a military offensive against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen two weeks ago, saying that the assault is doomed to fail.
“It is deplorable and painful to see Lebanon exploited to this extent, and for some of our platforms to be partners of platforms of the butcher Bashar Assad in discrediting a state that only offered goodness to the Lebanese, who only heard good words from the Saudi leaders,” Hariri said. “Since the establishment of the independent state, the Lebanese have only seen the generous Saudi contribution to end the Civil War, its [Saudi Arabia] rejection of all forms of fighting between the Lebanese, and its support against the devastating effects of the Israeli wars, the last of which took place in 2006,” Hariri said.
“History has written and will write in golden letters what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has offered to Lebanon,” he added.
Hariri unleashed a scathing attack against Iran, accusing it of spreading its “revolution” to Lebanon.
“Since Iran decided to export its revolution to Lebanon, it has been providing the Lebanese with continued material for division and sectarian conflicts,” he said.
Hariri said Iran uses Hezbollah as an “armed militia organization working under the leadership of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to carry out its tasks independently of the Lebanese state, its laws and legitimate institutions.”
The head of the Future Movement pointed out that Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen “lived and grew in the confines of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard since 2002.”
“Iran wants to clone the Lebanese model in Yemen, and has been working for years to make the Houthi Ansarullah a copy of the Lebanese Hezbollah, in order to become a tool in its hand to knock the doors of Mecca and the Arabian Gulf,” Hariri warned.
He said responsibility required the Lebanese not to keep silent about errors but to protect the interests of Lebanon and its people and “respond to the indecent voices, old and young, attacking Saudi Arabia and its leaders.”
“Saudi Arabia knows very well that Lebanon will not sell its Arabism to those who offend it, and the Lebanese also know that the kingdom of goodness, wisdom and firmness will not abandon Lebanon regardless of the rude voices,” Hariri added.
However, Speaker Nabih Berri said that Nasrallah’s anti-Saudi tirade would not affect the ongoing dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement.
“Dialogue between Hezbollah and Future Movement is ongoing and will not be affected by the recent political wrangling,” Berri was quoted as saying by MPs during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain al-Tineh residence.
Berri also said only dialogue and political solutions would end conflicts in the Middle East. “The region’s crises can only be tackled through dialogue and political solutions,” he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Saudi-led military campaign launched two weeks ago in Yemen was a “grave strategic mistake.”
“We believe that a grave strategic mistake has been committed in Yemen,” Morteza Sarmadi, who is also the country’s deputy foreign minister, told reporters after holding talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.
Sarmadi arrived in Beirut at dawn Wednesday for talks on the Yemeni crisis and to brief Lebanese officials on the outcome of last week’s nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
He said that his visit to Lebanon was part of a regional tour that has also taken him to Oman, Tunisia, Algeria and Iraq, focusing on the Yemeni crisis. He also met with Berri and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, and was expected to see Nasrallah before leaving Beirut.
Sarmadi called on all countries participating in the airstrikes to end the attacks and launch an initiative for a dialogue among all Yemeni parties to resolve the crisis. He said Yemen cannot be run exclusively by one political side, and that only a national unity government could prevent more tragedy.
Asked about his country’s role in ending the 10-month-old presidential vacuum in Lebanon, Sarmadi said Iran is against any foreign intervention in the internal affairs of any state, including Lebanon.
“Therefore, we consider that the Lebanese elite and political parties are able to find the right solutions for all the problems from which Lebanon is currently suffering, including the presidential vacuum,” he said.
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