Saudis offered Syria money to sever Iran ties

The head of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement says the Saudi regime had told Syria that it is ready to stop supporting the militants wreaking havoc in the country and give Damascus hundreds of billions of dollars for reconstruction if it accepted to cut ties with Iran.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Riyadh regime had made the proposal twice and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had turned it down, Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Akhbar daily newspaper reported Tuesday.

Riyadh is widely believed to be a key sponsor of the Takfiri terrorists, who have been operating to topple the Syrian government since 2011. Takfirism is largely influenced by Wahhabism, the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia and freely preached by Saudi clerics.

Iran, along with Russia and Hezbollah, has been effectively helping the Syrian government in its fight against those terrorists.

Nasrallah further said the target of the war in Syria is in fact the anti-Israel resistance front, because the resistance movement’s victories in the region pose a threat to the American agenda in the region.

He added that Hezbollah stands stronger today, which means it would be subject to more attacks in the future.

US interference in Lebanon election

Elsewhere in his remarks, Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia and the US of using “dirty” means to interfere in Lebanese general elections, scheduled for May 6, in an attempt to target the resistance.

By detaining Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and forcing him to resign last November, the Saudis intended to dissolve the Lebanese government and pit it against Hezbollah, he added.

Hariri stunned Lebanon and the world in November 2017 by announcing his resignation in a live television broadcast from Saudi Arabia. He accused Iran and Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world, an allegation rejected by both sides.

Senior sources close to Hariri and top Lebanese officials said Riyadh had coerced the Lebanese premier into stepping down and put him under house arrest.

Hariri, however, managed to get out of the kingdom amid international pressure on Riyadh. He rescinded his resignation after returning home.

Nasrallah said at that time that Saudi authorities had clearly and openly declared a war on Lebanon by holding Hariri hostage and forcing him to quit.