Lebanese TV anchor slams Iran, Hezbollah leader

From the Times of Israel:

Lebanese television anchor delivered a scathing criticism of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a televised news broadcast, accusing him of working for Iranian interests and against his home country of Lebanon.

During a program on Lebanon’s Future TV channel broadcast on April 8, Hanadi Zaidan said the Shiite Hezbollah acts as a proxy of the Iranian government and was in opposition to the rest of the Arab world.

An English transcript of some of the broadcast was provided by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute.

“Hezbollah and its secretary-general are the only ones who swim against the Arab and Lebanese current, declaring their blind loyalty to the Iranian birds of darkness,” Zaidan said. “His [Nasrallah’s] job is to implement an Iranian agenda against the Lebanese state.”

The tirade against Nasrallah and the powerful Shiite terror organization that he leads apparently came against the background of the ongoing battle between Saudi-led coalition forces and Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi militia who are fighting for control of Yemen.

Zaidan said Nasrallah and his “Iranian masters” had been caught off-guard by the coalition of Arab states’ military forces in what has been dubbed Operation Decisive Storm.

“Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, and Iran behind him, were alarmed by the Arab Decisive Storm,” she said. “They found it strange that the Arabs had decided to restore the legitimate Yemeni rule, along with the Arabs’ honor, which Iran has tried to sweep away by occupying Arab capitals.”

Zaidan went on to highlight the apparent hypocrisy that Nasrallah has displayed for being “alarmed and embarrassed by the Saudi support for the Lebanese state, although he [Nasrallah] runs a mini-state, which Iran supports on a sectarian basis, by providing it with weapons and [other] means of killing.”

The television presenter went on to attack Nasrallah for his meddling in the Lebanese political mechanism and contrasted Saudi efforts to rebuild Lebanon after each ruinous conflict with Israel, with Iran’s use of Lebanon’s plight as “fuel for its regional ambitions and its bloody messages.”

Zaidan also lauded Saudi efforts to improve the lot of thousands of Shiite Lebanese by allowing them to work in the Sunni-majority kingdom despite their religious differences, while accusing Iran of using the Shiite-Sunni divide to encourage conflict by training militia fighters.

“The secretary-general of Hezbollah was alarmed by the way that Saudi Arabia has opened its doors to hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, providing them with work opportunities, thus enabling them to lead honorable lives. Many of them are from the Shiite sect,” she said. “Meanwhile, Iran takes in young Lebanese and trains them to use weapons and fight. Saudi Arabia gives them money to build happy families, while Iran gives them reasons to die and build homes in Paradise — or is it Hell?”

In March, Nasrallah condemned the Saudi-led Arab coalition against the rebels forces in Yemen, saying Arabs should unite against Israel rather than the Houthi rebels who have taken over the capital of Sana’a and much of the country over the past months.

Nasrallah slammed Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen, calling it “surprising and painful.”