Hezbollah attraction to Saudi Arabia was spurred by Iran, sources say

By Laila Bassam and Parisa Hafezi

BEIRUT/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Hezbollah’s effort to blunt worldwide stress on Lebanon to disarm the group by interesting to Saudi Arabia final week was the results of back-channel diplomacy by Iran, two Iranian sources and a supply with data of Hezbollah considering mentioned.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem appealed to Saudi Arabia to show “a brand new web page” and put aside previous disputes to create a unified entrance towards Israel in a speech final week, a transfer broadly seen as signalling the Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim group’s alarm on the push to make Lebanon implement a plan for disarming it.

Iran’s involvement, which has not beforehand been reported, additionally signifies Tehran’s anxiousness that its important Lebanese ally will lose extra floor after struggling main reverses throughout final 12 months’s conflict with Israel.

Saudi Arabia, a Sunni energy that has lengthy regarded Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation that workouts undue affect over Lebanon on Iran’s behalf, has persistently backed disarmament and has proven no indicators of adjusting course since Qassem’s attraction.

Saudi officers didn’t reply to Reuters requests for touch upon Hezbollah’s attraction to the dominion or whether or not Riyadh’s coverage on the group’s possession of weapons has modified.

The problem of Hezbollah’s weapons is bitterly divisive in Lebanon and has grown more and more pressing as the USA presses Beirut to announce a plan to disarm the group and as Israel continues air strikes within the nation.

IRANIAN INTERVENTION

Iran’s outreach to the Saudis got here through Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who visited Riyadh just lately, in response to the 2 Iranian sources and the supply with data of Hezbollah considering.

The supply accustomed to Hezbollah considering mentioned the group believed the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Saudi Arabia’s Gulf ally Qatar this month might have modified the scenario sufficiently to erase previous enmities.

Nonetheless, the supply added that the group had solely made its attraction to Saudi Arabia after a sign from the Iranians, saying Larijani had urged Qassem to point out goodwill to the dominion.

One of many Iranian sources mentioned the topic of Hezbollah’s weapons was one of many important matters of dialogue throughout Larijani’s journey to Riyadh. The opposite Iranian supply mentioned Larijani had advised Saudi Arabia that neither Lebanon nor the broader area would profit from disarming Hezbollah.

Former arch regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on a rapprochement in 2023 after years of competitors that aggravated conflicts and political disputes in a number of Arab nations.

Nonetheless, Saudi Arabia stays cautious of Iranian affect in Arab states.

Saudi analyst Abdulaziz Sager, head of the Gulf Analysis Heart, mentioned the dominion’s coverage was primarily based on the state having an unique proper to own arms and management overseas coverage choices – a stance that meant there was no room for an understanding with Hezbollah.

“The Saudi-Iranian settlement didn’t change the premise of Saudi calls for rejecting Iranian sponsorship of armed sectarian ideological militias linked to Iran’s expansionist and interventionist regional technique,” Sager mentioned.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut, Parisa Hafezi in New York and Maha el-Dahan in Dubai; Writing by Angus McDowall; Enhancing by Alex Richardson)