Lebanese Hezbollah leader Naim Qasim yesterday shouted to Saudi Arabia, calling on both sides to put a stop to their differences and “open a new chapter in cooperation” to jointly tackle the “enemy” Israel.
According to Hezbollah’s lighthouse television, Qasim said at a rally in the southern outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, that “the entire region is facing a special and dangerous political turning point.”
Qasim said that after Israel launched an attack on senior members of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Qatar, the situation is different from before. We must recognize the comprehensive threat posed by Israel, and all countries in the Middle East should unite to jointly deal with the "enemy."
In his speech, Qasim called on Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah and other "resistance forces" to "open a new chapter of cooperation" and start dialogue on the basis of shelving differences and safeguarding common interests. Qasim said that the weapons of the "resistance forces" are only aimed at Israel, not Lebanon, Saudi Arabia or any other country.
Earlier this week, the Saudi and Pakistani governments officially signed a joint strategic defense agreement in the Saudi capital Riyadh.According to the agreement, third-party attacks against any country in the two countries would be considered "aggression against both countries."
In 2016, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Saudi Arabia, classified Hezbollah as a “terrorist organization.”