Lebonan

Hezbollah slams Hariri’s anti-Iran remaks

hezbollah_flagHezbollah has condemned outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri for his anti-Iran stance as a means to serve US interests.

On Thursday, Hariri accused Iran of “flagrant intervention” in Lebanese and Arab affairs, which he said was “not acceptable anymore.” Hariri also said that his country would  not be an Iranian protectorate.

The stance drew sharp criticism from the Hezbollah Resistance Movement, which described the provocative remarks by the leader of the pro-Western al-Mustaqbal party as a “true translation” of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recent comments on Iran.

On Wednesday, Gates alleged during a visit to Riyadh that Tehran was trying to take advantage of instability in Bahrain, the Persian Gulf island nation which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

In a statement issued late Thursday, Hezbollah said Hariri’s policies do not serve the interests of the Lebanese nation and are a US scheme aimed at sowing the seeds of discord among the two nations as well as regional countries, IRNA reported.

“Such stances are in line with apparent efforts aimed at diverting public attention from US meddling in the internal affairs of regional countries, stopping the people’s desire for freedom and liberation from US hegemony, and diverting [world] public opinion from Israeli crimes committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” the statement stated.

Hariri has been Lebanon’s caretaker premier since late January when Najib Mikati was elected as the country’s new prime minister in a vote held in President Michel Sleiman’s residence near Beirut.

This came after a mass resignation by a dozen Lebanese cabinet members and a political crisis triggered by the activities of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon — a US-backed court probing the 2005 assassination of Saad Hariri’s father and former premier, Rafiq Hariri.

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