BICOM

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has rejected claims that the group is arming Houthi rebels in Yemen and that it fired a missile at the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, on 4 November.

Nasrallah said: “We have not sent any ballistic missiles or advanced weapons – not even guns – not to Yemen, not to Bahrain, not to Kuwait, not to Iraq… or any Arab country”. He did admit that Hezbollah supplied weapons to “the forces of resistance in the Gaza Strip and to fighters in Syria”. “The problem with Saudi Arabia is that they don’t understand that Yemenis have brains and are strong and can produce their own weapons,” he added. In the speech Nasrallah said he was proud and honoured to have sent Russian made Kornet anti-tank missiles to Gaza. Israeli media have noted that they have been used by Hamas against Israeli forces in recent years.

Nasrallah was responding to a statement from Arab League foreign ministers, meeting in Cairo, who accused Hezbollah of “supporting terrorism and extremist groups in Arab countries with advanced weapons and ballistic missiles”. The Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Iran, which supports Hezbollah, was aiming “to destabilise and fuel sectarian rift” in the region “and to drive a wedge between ourselves and our people”.

Commenting on the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Nasrallah said “there is pressure on the Palestinians to accept dictates that will kill the Palestinian issue under what some are calling the ‘deal of the century’… there are Arab countries that want to forge ties with Israel – namely Saudi Arabia. The interview by [IDF Chief of the General Staff Gadi] Eisenkot to the Saudi website Elaph is a dangerous development for the Palestinians”.