Hyderabad: Saudi Arabian foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir said that Hezbollah has hijacked Lebanon and is putting “roadblocks” in front of Hariri at every opportunity. He also accused Hezbollah of spreading a malign influence throughout the Middle East. He attributed the unfortunate situation in Lebanon to Hezbollah’s activities supported by Iran.
CNBC has quoted Al-Jubeir as saying “Hezbollah continues to maintain its militia even though it should hand over its weapons. There can be no militia outside the scope of government institutions.”
He further added “Hezbollah has been the instrument that Iran uses to dominate Lebanon. The instrument that Iran uses to interfere in Syria with Hamas and with the Houthis. And so we see Hezbollah’s mischief all over the region.”
Al-Jubeir noted that the world has to make sure that Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization, saying that there can be no difference between a political wing and the military wing. He stressed the need to blacklist Hezbollah and curtail its activities.
In an interview to CNBC Al-Jubeir said “We cannot allow Lebanon to be a platform from which harm comes to Saudi Arabia. The Lebanese people are innocent. The Lebanese people have been dominated by Hezbollah and we need to find a way to help the Lebanese people come out from under the thumb of Hezbollah.”
The foreign minister informed that the Kingdom is mulling over various most effective ways to deal with this issue.
“The U.S. wants to help the Lebanese government be strong and be independent. So do we. The U.S. wants to curtail Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon. So do we. The U.S. wants to push back hard against Hezbollah and its terrorist activities and its criminal activities. And so do we, so I don’t see a difference between the positions of our two governments,” Al-Jubeir maintained.