Lebanese Officials Widely Reject Nasrallah's Attack on Saudi Arabia

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. (Reuters)
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. (Reuters)
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Lebanese Officials Widely Reject Nasrallah's Attack on Saudi Arabia

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. (Reuters)
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. (Reuters)

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's escalating stances against the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia were widely condemned in Lebanon.

President Michel Aoun said he was committed to Lebanon's official stance, which he reiterated during his latest address to the Lebanese people.

In it, he underscored his keenness on Lebanon's Arab and international relations, especially with the Gulf, led by Saudi Arabia.

"This keenness must be mutual because it favors Lebanon and the Gulf countries alike," he remarked.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement late on Monday that Nasrallah's stances "do not represent the position of the Lebanese government and the vast majority of the Lebanese people."

"It is not in Lebanon's interest to offend any Arab country, especially the nations of the Gulf," he added.

"We have long called for adopting a policy of dissociation from Arab disputes and called against harming Lebanon's ties with the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia," he continued.

"This is why we have demanded that foreign policy be addressed at the dialogue table to avert Lebanon consequences it cannot tolerate," Mikati stressed.

"We have called for Hezbollah to become part of the diverse Lebanese fabric, but its leadership goes against this approach with statements that primarily harm the Lebanese people and Lebanon's ties with its brothers," he lamented.

"For God's sake, have mercy on Lebanon and the Lebanese people and stop the hateful sectarian and political rhetoric."

Addressing Nasrallah, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said: "History won't have mercy on you."

In a tweet, he added: "Mr. Nasrallah, your insistence on antagonizing Saudi Arabia and its leadership is another example of how you gamble with Lebanon, its role and interests of its people."

"Saudi Arabia and all Gulf countries have embraced the Lebanese people and provided them with job opportunities and the opportunities for a dignified life. Those who threaten the Lebanese people's livelihood, stability and progress are those who want the Lebanese state to be a hostage to the state of Iran and its expansion in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon," he remarked.

"I know that you will not back down from your provocations and insults against the Arab Gulf countries, but everyone knows that history will not have mercy on a party that has sold its Arabism, stability of its nation and interests of its people for a paltry role in the wars in the region," Hariri continued.

Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Nasrallah's offense against Saudi Arabia during the critical time Lebanon is enduring is like a "crime against Lebanon and the Lebanese people and it jeopardizes their national interests."

He described Nasrallah's speech as "Iranian in every sense of the word."

"It is as if he is expressing Iran's loss of patience with the current conflict and tussle with the United States at the Vienna negotiations and Iran's diminished role in Yemen, its clash with the Arab Gulf countries, and weakened project in Iraq and Syria after it was confronted with human and geographic facts on the ground," he noted.

"Any Lebanese person, who takes into account the interests of his country and fellow citizens, does not act like Nasrallah during such difficult times," he added.

Former President Michel Suleiman slammed Nasrallah's statements, saying the majority of the Lebanese people reject his position and believe that they incur great harm on Lebanon and destroy its ties with Saudi Arabia "that has loved Lebanon without wanting anything in return."

Kataeb MP Elias Hankash mocked Nasrallah's claim that Saudi Arabia was taking the Lebanese people residing in the Kingdom as "hostages".

"The hostages in the Gulf are planning for the future, while in the land of resistance they reside in humiliation," he remarked.

In a tweet, he said he asked "his friends (hostages) in the Gulf about their daily suffering in a country that is detaining them and the injustice they are suffering, and I found that they are living a peaceful dignified life that remains abreast of the changes of the current age and they plan a better future for their children.

"In the land of resistance and (victories), they live between life and death. They are poor, humiliated and worried about their future," he lamented.



Hezbollah Fires about 250 Rockets, Other Projectiles into Israel in Heaviest Barrage in Weeks

Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
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Hezbollah Fires about 250 Rockets, Other Projectiles into Israel in Heaviest Barrage in Weeks

Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)

Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in one of the group's heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with ceasefire efforts to halt the all-out war.

Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon's military said.  

The Israeli military expressed regret, saying that the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military's operations are directed solely against the fighters.

Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon's military has largely kept to the sidelines.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

Hezbollah fires rockets after strikes on Beirut  

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several top commanders.

The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there.  

In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing.

The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether the injuries and damage elsewhere were caused by rockets or interceptors.

Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later.

Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel's military said it targeted Hezbollah command centers in the southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, where the group has a strong presence.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

EU envoy calls for pressure to reach a truce  

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week.

The European Union’s top diplomat called Sunday for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was "pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.”

Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group.

Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate 200 million euros ($208 million) to assist the Lebanese military, which would deploy additional forces to the south.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of UN peacekeepers.