Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday verbally attacked the king of Saudi Arabia, saying Riyadh helped spread extremist Islamic ideology worldwide and is taking the thousands of Lebanese who work in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region “hostage.”
Nasrallah’s statements during a speech in Beirut, quoted by The Associated Press, came in response to comments by King Salman, who called on the Lebanese in a speech last week “to end the terrorist Hezbollah’s control” of Lebanon.
“Your highness the king, the terrorist is (the side) who exported Wahhabi-Daeshi ideology to the world and they are you,” Nasrallah said, according to AP, referring to the Islamic State group by its Arabic acronym of Daesh.
Nasrallah also blamed Saudi Arabia for sending Saudi suicide attackers to Syria and Iraq as well as for the war in Yemen.
“The terrorist is whoever takes hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of Lebanese as hostages and threatens the Lebanese state with evicting them,” Nasrallah added.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued a statement saying Nasrallah’s comments do not represent the government nor the “majority of Lebanese.” He called on Lebanese politicians to spare Lebanon from statements “that lead nowhere”, according to AP.
The comments mark the latest phase in the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon and Hezbollah, which is sponsored by Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.
In October, Saudi Arabia ordered the Lebanese ambassador to the kingdom to leave the country and stopped all imports from Lebanon.
The move came days after a video circulated on social media in which Lebanon’s Information Minister, George Kordahi, described the war in Yemen as an aggression by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Kordahi made the comments on a TV program before he was chosen for the post in September. Kordahi, who is close to the Christian Marada Movement, a close ally of Hezbollah, later resigned from his ministerial post.
Other Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, followed Saudi Arabia and took similar punitive diplomatic measures against Lebanon.