Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Beirut on Thursday blasted Hezbollah and said the group was a threat to Arab security.
"Riyadh hopes that the political parties will give priority to the supreme interest of Lebanon... and end Hezbollah's terrorist hegemony over every aspect of the state," ambassador Waleed Bukhari said in a statement to the AFP news agency.
"Hezbollah's terrorist activities and regional military behavior threaten Arab national security," he added.
Bukhari's statement comes after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah described Saudi King Salman as a "terrorist" and accused Saudi Arabia of exporting Islamic extremism in a televised speech earlier this week.
Nasrallah’s statements during a speech in Beirut 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.
He also blamed Saudi Arabia for sending Saudi suicide attackers to Syria and Iraq as well as for the war in Yemen.
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.