In a May 15 address aired on Al-Manar TV, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah criticized Saudi Arabia for its recent airstrikes in Yemen. Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of bombing tombs and pilgrimage sites and attributed this to the Saudis' "Bedouin" mentality. He added that even Israel has refrained from attacking such religious sites.
Following are excerpts:
Hassan Nasrallah: [In Yemen, Saudi Arabia] is attacking tombs. Attacking mosques is nothing new to them. Israel has also bombarded mosques. Forgive me for comparing [Saudi Arabia] to Israel. But attacking tombs? Take, for example, the tomb of the martyr Hussein Badr Eddin Al-Houthi. The airforce conducted 14 sorties in order to destroy a grave with a few columns and a dome on top. Why? I'd like military and political experts to explain this to us.
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The citadels and the archeological sites of the ancient civilization in Yemen – why are you bombing them? I have an explanation for this. I believe that this is their mentality, their culture, their desert Bedouin views. This has nothing to do with the Prophet Muhammad. This is what they are doing in Saudi Arabia. I have talked about this in the past. This is the ideological authority of ISIS. This is the authority on which ISIS bases its actions in Iraq and Syria. Some people send car bombs or carry out pick-ace attacks, while others use their airforce. Doesn't this merit discussion? You are killing the people. Obviously, you find justifications for this. What is your problem with the dead? What is your problem with the martyrs? What is your problem with the citadels and ancient cultural antiquities? Can anybody give us a different explanation for this?
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I am very sorry. I am a member of the Lebanese people, which has suffered at the hands of the Israeli enemy and has fought against it. The same goes for the Palestinians and for the other peoples of the region. This malicious and barbaric enemy, which has perpetrated massacres – let nobody claim that I am embellishing its image – which has slashed open the wombs of women, and perpetrated massacres in Deir Yassin and elsewhere in occupied Palestine… Even [the Israeli enemy] did not bombard tombs or pilgrimage sites. Israel did not attack the tomb of Abbas [Moussawi] in the July [2006] war, or the tombs of Ahmad Yassin and the martyr Fathi Shqaqi. They did not attack tombs or holy pilgrimage sites.
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