Tehran - FNA
Hezbollah Secretary General Seyed Hassan Nasrallah said Saudi Arabia is arming and funding Takfiri terrorist groups in the Middle East. The leader of the Lebanese resistance movement made the remarks late on Sunday in a televised speech given during a ceremony in Southern Beirut to commemorate the martyrdom of resistance commanders, press tv reported. Nasrallah stated that the Saudi-backed Takfiri groups were bent on sowing the seeds of sectarian discord in the entire region. Takfiri people believe they are the only true Muslims and accuse other Muslims of apostasy. He described the Al-Qaeda-linked groups, the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as the best examples of the Saudi-backed Takfiri mindset. Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah said that Saudi authorities have launched a campaign of recruiting and dispatching young men to Syria to fight against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Warning against the foreign meddling in Syria, Nasrallah said that the Syrian people themselves should decide the fate of the country. Recently, frustrated by the deadlock of the second round of Geneva II talks, Saudi Arabia offered to supply the rebels with anti-aircraft missiles. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Russian-made antitank guided missiles and Chinese man-portable air-defense systems are up for grabs, already waiting in warehouses in Jordan and Turkey. An Arab diplomat and several opposition figures with knowledge of the Saudi efforts have told WSJ that these supplies are likely to tip the battlefield scales, as the rebels will become capable of taking on the government’s air power and destroying heavy armored vehicles. “New stuff is arriving imminently,” a Western diplomat with knowledge of the planned weapons deliveries told the American publication. Leaders of the Syrian opposition said they don't yet know the total amount of military aid that will be shipped. The new weapons are expected to reach Southern Syria from Jordan while the opposition in the North will get arms from Turkey, the Western diplomat said. According to the WSJ report, rebel commanders struck a deal on the new armaments shipment during a meeting with US and Saudi intelligence agents in Jordan on January 30.