Nasrallah To Arabs: Unite Against Israel, Not Yemen

BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Syed Hassan Nasrallah Friday night blasted Saudi Arabia for launching airstrikes against Yemen saying military campaign should have been directed against Israel not against the Arab people.

Speaking in a televised speech, Nasrallah slammed Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen, dubbed Operation Decisive Storm, calling it “surprising and painful.”

Hezbollah chief said the military campaign should be directed at Israel, not Yemen.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah would have been glad to be “partners” in a coalition against Israel, but lamented the fact that “for decades there has been no ‘Decisive Storm,’ not even a slight gust of resolve to fight Israel.”

Nasrallah expressed wonder that Riyadh felt compelled to intervene in Yemen, when “everything that has happened in our region for years didn’t necessitate Saudi intervention.”

 “The Palestinian people are still calling on you,” he declared , noting that a large portion of the population among the Palestinian Arabs are Sunnis and yet their calls for assistance were not met by unified force likes of the coalition organized against the Houthis.

“You say the new situation in Yemen threatens your national security,” he noted. “Do you not feel the threat posed by Israel, which has one of the strongest armies in the world?”

He continued: “This means that in the eyes of (the Saudis) Israel is not an enemy or a threat that requires such a ‘storm.’”

“Israel has never been an enemy in your eyes,” the Hezbollah chief said, stressing, “Arab countries have left Palestinian people to suffer, leaving the region to Israel “to murder and expel, and to the US to search for an illusionary diplomatic solution.

“You have money, so why do the Palestinian people live in poverty? These people have called on Iran to aid it, and Iran, despite the economic siege placed upon it thanks to you, has given everything it can to the Palestinian people, both by way of its diplomatic position and through funding and weapons.”

Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank during the Six-Day War of 1967. Tel Aviv conducted a self-proclaimed withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, but Israeli forces have been carrying out regular deadly forays into the sliver since the pullout.

Israel has launched three wars on Palestinians in Gaza since 2008. During the latest military aggression against Gaza in the summer of 2014, more than 2,140 Palestinians, including 577 children were killed. About 1,500 buildings and structures were also demolished.

In some of his harshest comments to date, Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of sending suicide attackers to Iraq and of creating the Islamic State group. Addressing Saudi Arabia, he said Iran had expanded its influence in the region because “you are lazy, losers, and you don’t take responsibility.”

Nasrallah said that there is a problem in Saudi Arabia’s mentality in that it doesn’t respect the will of free peoples. They regard everyone as followers and they can’t have an independent will, he added.

The real reason for the (Yemen) campaign, Nasrallah asserted, “is that Saudi Arabia lost its control and dominance in Yemen and the aim of war is to restore control and hegemony over Yemen.”

The Hezbollah leader suggested Riyadh would suffer a “humiliating defeat” if it didn’t resolve the conflict through negotiations.

“Throughout history, invaders were defeated and the invaders were humiliated,” Nasrallah said. “The rulers in Saudi Arabia still have an opportunity in order not to face a humiliating defeat.”

Nasrallah said the countries taking part in the military campaign should review their policies. “Should the region go to war because of Saudi money?” he asked.

Saudis try to justify their attacks by saying that the situation in Yemen threatens the security in the region, Nasrallah stated, adding that such justifications are false and baseless.

He dismissed arguments supporting the coalition that it was reclaiming the legitimacy of Yemen’s controversial  President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, saying that these arguments should be used instead to justify action in “Palestine.”

Nasrallah rejected claims that Iran was threatening to intervene and control the region, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed on Thursday, saying they were “the biggest lie” and demanding “evidence that Yemen is occupied by Iran” to be presented.

“Where are the Iranian armies in Yemen and where are the Iranian bases there?” he asked.

On Wednesday night, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of regional allies launched a military operation in Yemen against the Ansarullah movement, said to be formed on the pattern of Hezbollah and backed by Iran. 

Iran has cautioned that Saudi Arabia’s foray into Yemen would end up costing it dearly.

Crisis in Syria and Iraq

Nasrallah noted that Riyadh and its allies created and supported the ISIS Takfiri terrorist group to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and have done nothing to help Iraq counter the terrorists.

“Who is preventing a political solution in Syria? Who is fanning the flames in Syria? The kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its allies,” Nasrallah stated.

He also emphasized that efforts by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar to turn Syria into a submissive country have proved in vain.

Since 2011, when the militancy began in Syria and later spread to neighboring Iraq, Western countries and their regional allies, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, have been giving financial, logistical and military support to the militant groups.

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