He said if Saudi Arabia had a problem with Hezbollah to take it up with the party itself, and not target Lebanon, its people, army and Hezbollah’s allies. Tensions spilled into the streets on Saturday night when a Saudi-owned TV station aired a show mocking Nasrallah that led the group’s supporters to block roads with burning tyres.
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Hezbollah, for its part, denounces Saudi military intervention in Yemen, where Riyadh is leading a fierce campaign against the Shia Houthi militant group, which in 2014 overran much of the country and which Saudi Arabia accuses of serving Iranian interests.
“If there’s a criminal, I’m the criminal, Hezbollah is the criminal”, Nasrallah said Tuesday. “We don’t want to turn the table on anyone”. “I ask you not to go out”, he said.
On January 2, Saudi Arabia announced that it has executed Sheikh Nimr, among dozens of others.
Saudi Arabia last week extended sanctions on Hezbollah, freezing the assets and prohibiting dealings with three Lebanese nationals and four companies.
Since 2012, Hezbollah has been sending fighters to war-torn Syria to support the embattled Assad regime, of which it is a close ally.
Turkish armed forces are participating in the military drills of the “Islamic anti-terrorism coalition” led by Saudi Arabia, the Turkish newspaper Haber7 reported Fon February 29. But political conflict has paralysed the Lebanese government and the country has been without a head of state for almost two years.
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He repeated his accusations that Saudi Arabia was directly responsible for some of the auto bombings in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq and denounced Saudi “massacres” in Yemen. The last such attack in the southern suburbs was in November and claimed by Islamic State militants.
