(Riyadh) Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Boukhari, said Thursday that Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese Shiite movement, represents “a threat to regional security”, accusations that may weigh more heavily on already tense relations between Beirut and Riyadh.
Since the end of October, a serious diplomatic crisis has pitted Lebanon against several Arab Gulf monarchies against the backdrop of a standoff over Hezbollah, a heavyweight in Lebanese politics, which is armed and financed by Iran, the great regional rival of Saudi Arabia.
“Riyadh hopes that the (Lebanese) political parties will make the supreme interest of their country their priority […] and that they will end Hezbollah’s hegemony over all aspects of the state, ”Bukhari said in a statement.
“Hezbollah’s terrorist activities and its military actions in the region threaten the national security of Arab countries,” he added.
On Monday evening, in a speech broadcast on Lebanese television channels, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called King Salman of Saudi Arabia a “terrorist”, accusing Riyadh of spreading extremism.
PHOTO ANWAR AMRO, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
On Monday evening, in a speech broadcast on Lebanese television channels, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called King Salman of Saudi Arabia a “terrorist”.
Riyadh has been involved in the war in neighboring Yemen since 2015 at the head of a military coalition supporting the government against Houthi rebels close to Iran.
At the end of October, the kingdom recalled its ambassador to Beirut and expelled the Lebanese ambassador after statements by a minister in Lebanon criticizing the intervention of the military coalition in Yemen.
Two days later, the head of Saudi diplomacy Faisal ben Farhane declared that the problem went well “beyond the simple comments of a minister”, denouncing “the hegemony of Hezbollah over Lebanon”.
Riyadh also accused Hezbollah of helping the Houthis launch attacks on the kingdom, an allegation rejected by the Lebanese formation.
Saudi Arabia has long accused Iran of providing arms to the Houthis and Hezbollah of training insurgents. If Tehran recognizes its political support for the rebels, it denies providing them with weapons.
According to the United Nations, the war in Yemen has caused the deaths of 377,000 people, more than half of them from the indirect consequences of the conflict, including lack of clean water, hunger and disease.