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Lebanon's Hezbollah chief calls French cartoons "an aggression"

October 30, 2020 at 8:26 pm

Lebanese men watch the head of the country’s Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah during a televised speech, at a coffee shop in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, on 30 August 2020 [ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images]

The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah on Friday described French cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) as an aggression and likened Paris sticking by them to “declaring a sort of war”, Reuters reports.

In a televised speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said French authorities had worsened a standoff over the caricatures, which stirred anger among Muslims, by being stubborn.

The head of the heavily armed Shi’ite movement condemned this week’s fatal stabbings at a church in Nice, but said Western leaders also bore responsibility for such crimes because of their roles in Middle East conflicts.

READ: Turkey summons French envoy over insulting cartoon