U.S., Saudi Stress Importance of 'Backing Lebanese State, Disarming Hizbullah'
The United States and Saudi Arabia stressed during their landmark bilateral summit in Riyadh over the weekend “the importance of backing the Lebanese state to extend its sovereignty across its entire territory,” a joint statement said.
The statement carried by the Saudi official news agency SPA said the two sides also underscored the need to “disarm terrorist groups such as Hizbullah and put all arms under the legitimate supervision of the Lebanese army.”
U.S. President Donald Trump had compared Hizbullah in a landmark speech on Sunday to extremist organizations such as Islamic State and al-Qaida, as he lauded the Lebanese army for fighting IS and Lebanon for hosting a huge number of Syrian refugees.
“The true toll of ISIS, al-Qaida, Hizbullah, Hamas, and so many others, must be counted not only in the number of dead. It must also be counted in generations of vanished dreams,” Trump said.
Applauding the Gulf Cooperation Council for “blocking funders from using their countries as a financial base for terror, and designating Hizbullah as a terrorist organization last year,” the U.S. leader also praised Saudi Arabia for joining Washington this week in “placing sanctions on one of the most senior leaders of Hizbullah,” Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, who is the head of the party's powerful executive council.
“Of course, there is still much work to do,” Trump added.
He lamented that “from Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region.”
Trump also acknowledged the Lebanese army's role in fighting IS militants on the eastern border, saying “many are already making significant contributions to regional security” and that “the Lebanese Army is hunting ISIS operatives who try to infiltrate their territory.”
A defiant Safieddine had stressed earlier on Sunday that the U.S. administration will not be able to “harm the resistance,” three days after he was blacklisted by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in an unprecedented "joint terrorist designation."
“When the U.S. administration was in a good situation, it did not manage to harm the resistance, and therefore this mentally impeded and mad U.S. administration led by Trump will not be able to harm the resistance and they will not get anything,” the Hizbullah official added.
almost 7 years
The dirty Saudi nature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFGHYsQ4bKw
almost 7 years
glad that Bani Saud days are numbered.. Trump, the one who classified them by cattle, got the 148b and he will fly home convinced that those people are really cattle after his visit... the resistance will remain a pin in their eyes.
https://ibb.co/kmFVAv
almost 7 years
Spot on!
almost 7 years
you sound like a very successful business creature.
almost 7 years
Hassan hasabalah the chief terrorist will speak on Thursday and he will also blow his top :)))
almost 7 years
why should they help a country that is willing to let a criminal terrorist militia run its affairs and a sectarian criminal terrorist call for the demise of their country, Saudi Arabia.
got it now flamethrower?
almost 7 years
iranian resilient
last time you assured us Hariri will never be prime minister! Also what came out of your fabricated story about that poor virgin Christian woman who was assaulted by Hariri's best buddy and you claimed Aoun was going to take care of it??
fake cheap heretic!
almost 7 years
someone forcing you to read or you read and you have nothing to refute so you pour your personal attacks?
almost 7 years
and just a few hours ago, Iran responded to the summit: huge explosion in Manchester, England at a concert: 19 dead and 55 injured so far.
That's how Iran responds to a 'SHOW' by staging another show.
almost 7 years
how come ISIS fighting HA in syria..we all know ISIS were they come from...so plz stop this prop...
almost 7 years
"how come ISIS fighting HA in syria"
lol
almost 7 years
Trump, Saudi, and Netanyahu are a three-headed hydra.
almost 7 years
“Of course, there is still much work to do,” Trump added.
He lamented that “from Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region.”
End of quote. So he still doesn't know a thing about the Middle East except that Hillary Clinton started ISIS, which is substantially true. He seems to have a blind spot about Iran, an emotional caricature on which he hangs all his cowardice about facing Sunni, Christian, and Jewish extremism in the region as well as European complicity in that extremism. I think he'll get there. He's no putz.
almost 7 years
He has six more months to get busy on foreign affairs. He seems to be on schedule, starting at home and working outwards, but he better realize that foreign policy is what the people hired him to fix: disassembling the empire which is killing us as fast as its killing "them". He has to get the CIA etal working on a clear picture of violent extremism (it's a good term but hasn't been applied to the actual perpetrators: Israel, Persian Gulf monarchs, and NATO). He has to clean out the Pentagon, which is the big job, full of rot left over from the Vietnam War: officers and NCO's who "grew up" in that corporate culture of lies and racism. Lies and racism: two halves of a coin. Look at Lebanon's Constitutional Article 24, the origin of its famous instability.
If Trump doesn't move, he'll get moved. "The arc of the universe is toward justice," said ML King, Jr., and time grows short, viz, this suicide bombing in England.
almost 7 years
Good one.
You can try disarming Hezbollah, instead of all this talk.