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Iran-Saudi rapprochement ‘fatal blow’ to US-Israeli project in region: Hezbollah

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem (File photo)

A high-ranking Hezbollah official says the restoration of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia is a “fatal blow” to the American-Israeli project in the Middle East region.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, the Lebanese resistance movement's deputy secretary general, made the remark in a post on his Twitter account on Saturday after Tehran and Riyadh agreed to re-establish relations and re-open embassies in Chinese-mediated talks seven years after they had severed ties.

“The return of Iranian-Saudi relations is an important turning point for the stability, security and progress of the region, and it is the beginning of good things for their peoples and the peoples of the region,” Qassem wrote in an Arabic-language tweet.

“And it is a fatal blow to the American-Israeli project and makes it more precarious,” he added.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 after Iranian protesters, enraged by the execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr by the Saudi government, stormed its embassy in Tehran.

The two sides had held five rounds of negotiations in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad since April 2021 to reestablish relations. 

Hamas: Actions that anger Israel a 'step in right direction'

Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas lauded the resumption of bilateral relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia as a “desirable phenomenon” that should be encouraged and supported.

“Any action that infuriates the Zionist enemy is a step in the right direction. This unity and accord is the desire of the nations in the region, and what political leaders should do is to listen to the people's wishes,” said Khaled al-Qaddoumi, Hamas' representative in Iran.

Stressing that Palestine is the link between the components of the Islamic Ummah, Qaddoumi said Hamas expects the resumption of Iran-Saudi Arabia ties will usher in an era of dignity, pride, authority and stability for the Ummah.

“Undoubtedly, stability in the relations between the components of the Ummah is to the benefit of Palestine because it is the only way to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist regime as a common enemy of the Islamic Ummah,” the Hamas official added.


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