Sheikh Qaouk:

Hezbollah stronger after Syria role

Rasa - Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah emerged stronger after getting involved in the fight against Takfiri terrorists on the Syrian soil, a senior official with the group says.

News ID: 4086

Date: 22 March 2016 - 15:49

RNA - “Hezbollah today is in its best status... [and] it only got stronger after intervening in Syria,” Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, said Saturday.

During past few years, Hezbollah resistance fighters have been helping the Syrian army in their battles against Takfiri terror groups, particularly those operating in the areas near the Lebanese border.

The resistance group says its military role in Syria is aimed at preventing the spillover of the Syria crisis into Lebanon.

Saudi crimes ‘stain on humanity’

Elsewhere in his remarks, Qaouk slammed the Saudi regime for its ongoing campaign against Yemen, the poorest nation in the Arab world.

“Massacres committed by the Saudi regime in Yemen,” the Hezbollah official said, are a “stain” on humanity.

About 8,400 people have been killed in Saudi airstrikes on Yemen since Riyadh's military campaign began on March 26, 2015.

The senior Hezbollah official further noted that Saudi Arabia started the Yemen war on its own, but it is now “seeking to blame Hezbollah and its Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah” for its mistakes.

Qaouk added that sanctions against Hezbollah and designating the group as a “terror” organization “will not compensate for Riyadh’s losses in Yemen.”

The Arab League and the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council, both under the influence of the Saudi regime, declared Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization earlier this month.

The Hezbollah official said the Saudis “are only harvesting disappointments and failure in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Bahrain and Lebanon and is [sic] seeking to rectify those losses.”

Hezbollah will continue on its “path of victories and will not be deterred by decisions, sanctions and threats” against it, Qaouk said.

In recent months, the Al Saud regime has been taking steps to mount pressure on Lebanon, a move which analysts have attributed to Riyadh’s anger over Hezbollah’s gains against the Takfiri terrorists it has long supported in Syria.

Last month, Saudi Arabia suspended a $3-billion package to the Lebanese army and $1 billion in aid to its internal security forces.

Hezbollah slammed Riyadh's move, saying that it exposes the real face of Saudi Arabia and refutes its claims about fighting terrorism.

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