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Hezbollah says Saudi should pursue dialogue, not ‘bloodshed’ with Iran

May 26, 2017 at 11:07 am

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah,[Pottemagerens-Hus/Facebook]

The militant Lebanese Shia jihadist group Hezbollah said yesterday that Saudi Arabia was on a losing path to more bloodshed in its struggle with Iran and instead urged Riyadh to seek dialogue and negotiations with Tehran.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed group, said Riyadh aimed to pull the United States into its conflict with Tehran after a summit where President Donald Trump signalled firm backing for Saudi Arabia while criticising Iran.

Nasrallah’s group is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other influential powers.

Read: Iran minister warns Saudi Arabia after ‘battle’ comments

In a televised speech, Nasrallah said:

I advise Saudi to set aside struggle, hatred and war. Your only solution for the sake of all Muslims, the whole region…is dialogue with Iran and to negotiate with Iran.

“This path you are taking will only lead to spending billions more dollars and spilling more blood and you will be the ones who lose. You will fail,” he said.

Nasrallah did not make any reference to his own group or Iran’s interventionism throughout the region.

Rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is fuelling conflicts across the region, including the war in Syria where Hezbollah’s Shia jihadists have played a critical role fighting in support of the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad.

Read: Saudi Arabia’s Muhammad Bin Salman and Iran

Hezbollah has also participated in atrocities committed against the Syrian people, including in Madaya and the mass starvation campaign there against Sunni civilians.

‘Iran responsible for instability and terror’

Speaking at the Riyadh summit, Trump said that Iran was responsible for instability in the region and was funding, arming and training militias that spread destruction and chaos.

Trump signed a $110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia during his visit.

Trump’s policy marks a repudiation of the regional policy of his predecessor Barack Obama, whose administration held the first direct talks with Tehran since the so-called 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Read: Iran issues complaint to UNSC against Saudi

Although Washington and Tehran were still a long way from normalising their relations, Obama reached an accord to lift sanctions in return for Iran curbing its nuclear programme, which Trump condemned as “the worst deal ever signed”.

Nasrallah said the goal of the Riyadh summit was to convince the United States “to intervene in direct confrontation” with “Iran and the axis of resistance” – a reference to an Iran-led regional alliance of Shia jihadists and autocratic regimes, including Hezbollah and the Assad regime.

Hezbollah was founded in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon. Since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon 17 years ago, Hezbollah has continued to use the “resistance” against it as an excuse to maintain its arms. Instead, its arms have primarily been used to increase its own power in Lebanon, and to assist the Assad regime.

Nasrallah’s comments to Saudi Arabia came on the anniversary of Israel’s 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon.