The Secretary-General of the Lebanese “Hezbollah” group, Hassan Nasrallah, on Tuesday accused his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of submitting to the United States’ desire to “condemn” the Russian military operation in Ukraine .
On February 24, Russia began a military intervention in its neighbor Ukraine, which prompted many capitals, including Washington, to impose harsh sanctions on Moscow in sectors including diplomacy, economy, finance, and sports.
Nasrallah considered, during a televised speech, that “the statement issued by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry is written in the American embassy,” according to the Lebanese “Al-Manar” channel.
Hezbollah is an ally of Iran, which has controversial files between it and the United States, most notably the two countries’ foreign policy in the Middle East.
He added, “What is required of the Lebanese is to say to the Americans: We are not slaves to you. This is how sovereignty and independence will be, and otherwise, it is a forgery.”
Until 19:40 GMT, neither the Lebanese Foreign Ministry nor the American Embassy in Beirut had commented on Nasrallah’s speech.
In early March, Nasrallah accused Washington of “injustice and coercion”, and held it responsible for what is happening in Ukraine.
About two weeks ago, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said, in a statement, that it “condemns the invasion of Ukrainian territory.”
They called on Russia to “immediately stop military operations, withdraw its forces, and return to the logic of dialogue and negotiation.”
The Russian embassy in Beirut criticized the Lebanese Foreign Ministry’s statement, saying that it “astonished us (..) and violated the policy of disassociation, and took (position) one party against another.”
