TEL AVIV – Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on Thursday described Hezbollah as a “first-class terrorist organization” that was responsible for destabilizing the region.
“Hezbollah has kidnapped the Lebanese system,” London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat cited Jubeir as saying at a joint news conference in Riyadh with French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian.
Jubeir said “consultations and coordination between peace-loving countries and Lebanon-loving countries are underway to try to find a way that would restore sovereignty to Lebanon and reduce the negative action which Hezbollah is conducting in Lebanon.”
Jubeir said he and his French counterpart discussed ways to combat terror and Iran’s influence in the region.
He called Hezbollah “a tool of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”
He also dismissed as “baseless” accusations by Lebanese President Michel Aoun that resigned Prime Minister Saad Hariri was being detained against his will by Saudi Arabia.
Hariri has since traveled to France and vowed to return to Beirut by Wednesday.
Hariri was in the Gulf kingdom, where he also holds citizenship, when he made an announcement on November 4 that he was resigning from his post out of fear for his life from Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.