The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah on Thursday said 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.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Riyadh aimed to pull the US into its conflict with Tehran after a summit where US President Donald Trump signalled firm backing for Saudi Arabia while criticizing Iran.
Nasrallah’s group is designated as a terrorist organization by the US.
“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,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
“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.
Rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is fuelling conflicts across the region, including the war in Syria where Hezbollah’s powerful armed wing has played a critical role fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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 US$110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia during his visit.
Trump’s policy marks a repudiation of the regional policy of former US president Barack Obama, whose administration held the first direct talks with Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Although Washington and Tehran were still a long way from normalizing their relations, Obama reached an accord to lift sanctions in return for Iran curbing its nuclear program, which Trump condemned as “the worst deal ever signed.”
Nasrallah said the goal of the Riyadh summit was to convince the US “to intervene in direct confrontation” with “Iran and the resistance axis” — a reference to an Iran-backed regional alliance including Hezbollah.
Hezbollah was founded in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon.
Nasrallah was speaking on the anniversary of Israel’s 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
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