A Syrian army tank fires during a battle against opposition fighters in the city of Qusayr, in Syria's central Homs province, recently.
ABU DHABI: Saudi Arabia’s highest religious figure praised a leading Sunni scholar yesterday for his condemnation of Hezbollah following its intervention in Syria.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Sheikh’s words add to the growing criticism of Hezbollah by Sunni authorities, underlining the sectarian aspect of Syria’s civil war where mostly Sunni rebels are fighting President Bashar Al Assad.
The Shia Hezbollah, once revered by fellow Arabs as a bulwark against Israel, has lost support due to its military support for Assad.
Influential Qatar-based Sunni cleric Sheikh Yousuf Al Qaradawi last week called for jihad against Assad and called Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which means party of God, “the party of Satan”.
He said he had been wrong to have praised Hezbollah in the past when he had sought to bring Sunnis and Shias closer.
Sheikh Abdulaziz, the highest religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, said Al Qaradawi’s stance was in line with Sunni orthodoxy.
“Part of his statement was his support and reference to the stance of some of the (Saudi) kingdom’s great scholars, which has been clear towards this hateful sectarian party since its establishment,” he said in a statement.
He called on scholars and politicians to stop Hezbollah’s “aggression”. Last week, Bahrain’s foreign minister called Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, a “terrorist”.
Nasrallah became a hero in the Arab world after his forces helped push Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000 and confronted the Jewish state in a short war in 2006.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal, meanwhile, urged Lebanon’s people to act “wisely” and end their fighting in the city of Tripoli, wracked by violence linked to the Syrian conflict.
Riyadh is following “with deep concern the bloody events taking place in Tripoli... that benefit nobody but those who do not mean well for Lebanon and its people,” he said. Agencies
