Hezbollah MP: Saudi Arabia seeking revenge on Lebanon for Yemen war loss

Press TV: Amid a diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, a Lebanese lawmaker says the country that failed in its war on Yemen is now planning to take revenge against Lebanon over its support for the oppressed Yemeni people during the devastating military aggression.

Mohammad Raad, the head of Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc — the political wing of the Hezbollah resistance movement — in the Lebanese parliament, made the remarks on Saturday, as tensions have been running high between Beirut and Persian Gulf states over the Saudi-led military campaign on Yemen.

“Today, we are facing a crisis created by one of the regional countries that launched a cruel war against another Arab country and lost it,” Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website quoted him as saying, apparently referring to Saudi Arabia.

“The country that lost the war now intends to avenge its defeat against Lebanon since Lebanon stood by the oppressed nation that has been under invasion for eight years and whose country has been destroyed amid attempts by some parties to make it surrender.”

On a TV program filmed in August and aired this week, Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi, who was not appointed to the post back then, said the war in Yemen was an aggression by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He called the war “absurd,” saying it must stop because he is opposed to wars between Arabs.

He called the war on the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country “futile” and said it was “time for it to end.”

Kordahi also said the Yemeni army forces and their allied fighters from Popular Committees were “defending themselves… against an external aggression,” and that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the Saudi-led coalition.

Angered by the criticism, Saudi Arabia on Saturday afternoon ordered Lebanon’s ambassador to leave the kingdom within 48 hours and banned all imports from the fellow Arab country.

In solidarity with Riyadh, Kuwait and Bahrain followed suit, ordering the Lebanese charge d’affaires to leave within two days and recalling their own envoys from Beirut. The United Arab Emirates also said Saturday it was withdrawing its diplomats from Lebanon.