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News > World

Hezbollah: US Uses Kurdish Forces in Syria as ‘Tools’

  • Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is seen on a video screen as he addresses his supporters in Beirut, Lebanon.

    Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is seen on a video screen as he addresses his supporters in Beirut, Lebanon. | Photo: Reuters

Published 16 February 2018
Opinion

"In the oil and gas battle, the only card [the Lebanese] have is the resistance," Nasrallah said.

The Lebanese Shitte resistance group, Hezbollah, rejected Friday U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s comments describing the movement as a "concern”, and added that the United States uses Kurdish forces in Syria as “tools.”

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Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, said Syrian Kurdish forces are being used as “tools” by the United States to delegitimize the Syrian government, warning that Washington will "let them down" once it finds it convenient.

Nasrallah also said the fomenting conflict between Tel Aviv and Beirut over border disputes is a "battle for all of Lebanon”, in which Lebanese authorities should take a "firm and strong" position.

"In the oil and gas battle, the only card [the Lebanese] have is the resistance," Nasrallah said, referring to the Hezbollah movement. “If the Americans come and say you must be responsive so that I restrain Israel from you: tell the Americans they must accept [Lebanon's] demands so that we hold Hezbollah back from Israel."

Last week, Lebanon described a planned border wall by Israel as an "act of aggression," warning that they would be ready to take action against it.

Lebanon is also planning to explore for oil and gas within its offshore borders which has angered Israel who already has oil and gas plants in the large Mediterranean field.

"If Lebanon's Higher Defence Council were to decide that [Israeli] offshore oil and gas plants...should be forbidden from working, I promise they would stop working within hours," Nasrallah said.

Additionally, in recent weeks, the United States has imposed a number of sanctions on people and entities associated with Hezbollah. Hezbollah has traditionally rejected U.S. demands to disarm, saying the group is necessary to defend Lebanon against Israel.

The last time Israel breached Lebanon’s border was in 2006, with the aim of taking out Hezbollah — an effort that ultimately failed.

Hezbollah has also said it is needed in Syria to counter Sunni militant threats against Lebanon, having played a key role in defeating the Islamic State group in Syria in November.

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