The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia appears to be boosting its efforts to confront the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, calling for the Lebanese government and public to take action against the powerful Shia political party while demanding the establishment of a global alliance against the group.
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The call reflects the ongoing frustration of Saudi Arabia's rulers stemming from the inability of the ultraconservative Sunni kingdom to gain an edge on the Lebanese party and its Iranian and Syrian allies, despite a years-long effort to curtail the so-called "resistance axis" across multiple theaters of conflict across the Middle East.
In the past few weeks, Saudi Minister of State for Arab Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan has called Hezbollah the “party of Satan” with a “terrorist militia” that is “more dangerous than (Islamic State group) and al-Qaida put together.”
“It’s not strange for the terrorist militia (of Hezbollah) to participate in a war against the kingdom upon directions from the (Iranian) lords of global terrorism but what’s strange is the Lebanese government and people’s silence,” he said on Twitter.
The Saudis and the United States have continued to repeat accusations that Iran supports global terrorism, despite clear evidence that the Saudis have themselves backed extremist Sunni Islamist groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
Saudi-Iranian ties have plunged amid mutual accusations that the two states support opposing sides in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, among other locales. Iran has backed the Syrian Army alongside Russia, Hezbollah and Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces in a months-long campaign to stamp out the Islamic State group in Syria's central desert and population centers like Deir Ezzor.
Sabhan, an aggressive spokesman for the Saudi rulers, has also called for an “international coalition” to confront and stamp out Hezbollah and its Shia allies as a means to achieve regional security and peace.
The Lebanese government has not commented on any of Sabhan’s remarks aimed at Hezbollah and is not likely to do so in order to avoid a row that may cause a split within its ranks.
The move places increased pressure on Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, a long-time ally of the Gulf Arab kingdom who many Saudis believe has gone astray. Ties between the Sunni billionaire politician and the kingdom have soured as Hezbollah's role has grown in the Lebanese government and the Syrian civil war draws to a close with the government of Bashar al-Assad remaining intact.
Sabhan’s attacks on the resistance group came on the same day Hezbollah MP Nawaf Musawi accused Saudi Arabia of financing a media campaign meant to vilify the party during the lead-up to Lebanon's 2018 parliamentary elections.
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“Saudi Arabia has earmarked a budget to smear Hezbollah. What’s new in the Saudi campaigns against Hezbollah is that they are launched directly from the mouths of the Saudi regime after they were launched from the mouths of allies or friends in Lebanon,” Musawi told a Hezbollah rally.
Sabhan's comments also come days after the U.S. House of Representatives endorsed new sanctions on the resistance group as part of a broader effort to boost pressure on Iran.
The Saudi official praised the measures on Twitter, tweeting: “To curb the terrorist militia, those who work with it and cooperate with it on the political, economic and media fronts must be punished. There must be serious efforts to restrain it on the domestic and foreign levels and to confront it by force.”
In the meantime, the Saudi-led bloc of Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain – has moved toward the normalization of relations with Israeli authorities, signaling a historic alliance shift under Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Despite expressing frustration over the ongoing attempts to interfere in Lebanese internal affairs and subjugate the country, Hezbollah's leadership has taken the Saudi saber-rattling in stride.
In a speech earlier this month, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah heaped mockery on efforts against the group, noting that the morale of the group's fighters renders them immune to being “afraid of a braggart like Trump or a little boy like Al-Sabhan.”
“(Al-Sabhan) admitted that Hezbollah is a major regional force that can only be confronted through a strict international coalition and this means that seeking Lebanese alliances to confront Hezbollah is something ineffective,” Nasrallah said.
“Regional peace and security can be achieved when Saudi Arabia stops backing Wahhabist groups ... Saudi Arabia is preventing security and peace in Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq and Pakistan,” the Hezbollah leader added.
“Hezbollah is one of the factors that are achieving regional peace and security, which are being threatened by Saudi Arabia, Israel and America,” Nasrallah said.
“The hand that will be extended to harm this country will be cut off regardless where it may come from,” he warned. “Those who conspire against this country will only face failure.”