Manama: Riyadh will never accept to see Lebanon involved in a war on Saudi Arabia, the Saudi State Minister for Arabian Gulf Affairs has said.
"We will treat the government of Lebanon as a government declaring war because of Hezbollah militias," Thamer Al Sabhan said.
“The Hezbollah militias affect all decisions taken by the Lebanese government,” he told Al Arabiya Television late on Monday.
Al Sabhan added that King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud had informed Lebanon’s outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri of the details of Hezbollah's aggression against Saudi Arabia, pointing out that the Lebanese government should be aware of the dangers of these militias against his country.
“Hezbollah militias are involved in every terrorist act threatening Saudi Arabia,” Al Sabhan said.
“Saudi Arabia will use all political and other means to confront the ‘Party of Satan’.”
The Lebanese must choose either peace or inclusion under Hezbollah, he added.
"We expected the Lebanese government to act and deter Hezbollah," he said, noting that it was up to the Lebanese to determine what would happen with Saudi Arabia.
In his statement to the pan-Arab station, Al Sabhan accused Hezbollah of smuggling drugs into Saudi Arabia and of training Saudi youth on terrorism.
“Hariri and noble Lebanese will not accept the stances of Hezbollah,” he said, stressing that claims that Hariri was forced to resign were mere lies distract the attention of the Lebanese people.
“Lebanon had been hijacked by Iran-backed Hezbollah militias,” Al Sabhan said,
On his Twitter account, the Saudi minister posted that “Lebanon following the resignation will never be the same as it was before,"
"We will not accept that Lebanon is in any way a platform for the launching of terrorism towards our countries. It is up to its leaders to choose whether it is a state of terrorism or a state of peace," he said to his 410,000 followers on the microblogging site.
Hariri resigned on Saturday.
