Hezbollah Leader Invites Saudi Arabia To 'Make Peace', Join Against Israel

Hezbollah Leader Naim Qassem/DOK PHOTO via Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA - Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem urged Saudi Arabia to open a "new chapter" with the Iran-backed group and set aside past disputes to create a unity front against Israel.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries designated Hezbollah Shia as a terrorist organization in 2016. In recent months, Riyadh has joined Washington and rivals Hezbollah in Lebanon in pressuring the Lebanese government to strip the group of weapons.

In a televised address on Friday, September 19, Qassem said regional powers should view Israel, not Hezbollah, as a major threat to the Middle East and propose "improving relations" with Riyadh.

"We assure you that the resistance weapon (Hezbollah) is directed at Israeli enemies, not Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, or any other place or entity in the world," Qassem said.

He said dialogue would freeze disputes in the past.

At least in this extraordinary phase, so we can face Israel and curb it," he said.

Qassem said suppressing Hezbollah "is a clean advantage for Israel."

Saudi Arabia once spent billions of dollars in Lebanon, depositing funds at the central bank and helping rebuild the southern region after the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel - just to see the group grow stronger in Lebanon and the region with the help of Iran.

Relations worsened in 2021 when Sunni-lined Saudi Arabia expelled Lebanese ambassadors, recalled their own envoys, and banned imports from Lebanon. A statement in Saudi state media at the time stated that Hezbollah controlled the Lebanese state decision-making process.

At that time, Secretary General Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, called the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, a "terrorist" and repeatedly criticized Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen.

However, the past few months have seen a devastating political shift in the region, with Israel attacking Hezbollah last year and killing Nasrallah, as well as rebels overthrowing the group's ally in Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in December.