Saudis Sharpen Attacks on Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran
A Saudi Cabinet statement released today sharpened the Kingdom’s criticism of those forces that have set in motion the latest Middle Eastern crisis. The statement offers the usual and pro-forma condemnations of Israel. The statement, without naming the United States, also criticizes it for the veto in the Security Council last week. But the harshest language is reserved for Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran, actors that are something less than “reasonable,” and are responsible for setting in motion a chain of events that has devastated Lebanon and “imprisoned” the Palestinians. From the statement:
Some elements and groups have got loose and slipped into taking decisions on their own that Israel has exploited to wage a ferocious war against Lebanon and to imprison the entire Palestinian people. . . . Saudi Arabia stands together with the legitimate and reasonable-minded national forces in Lebanon and occupied Palestine to combat these dangers to the Arab and Muslim nation. . . .
