Riyadh, Ankara disrupting progress in Syria talks: Nasrallah

Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, says Saudi Arabia and Turkey are "disrupting any progress" in the ongoing negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition aimed at ending five years of war in the Arab country.

"What is disrupting any progress toward a political solution is firstly Saudi Arabia, and secondly Turkey," Nasrallah said during an interview with the Lebanese al-Mayadeen television channel broadcast on Monday.

The new round of UN-backed peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition, known as the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), started in the Swiss city of Geneva on March 14.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura announced a halt to the previous round of the discussions on February 3 after the Saudi-backed opposition refused to continue the talks.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey are among the staunch supporters of Takfiri terrorist groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since March 2011. The two countries have always insisted that Assad must leave power for the war to end.

List of Israeli targets!

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Hezbollah leader warned the Israeli regime against attacking Lebanon, stressing that the resistance movement owns a comprehensive list of targets in the occupied Palestinian lands, including Tel Aviv’s nuclear reactors and biological research centers.

"We can strike any target we want inside occupied Palestine. There will be no ceiling, limits or red lines," Nasrallah emphasized.

The Hezbollah chief also said war against Lebanon is unlikely as the cost of war is very important to Tel Aviv and the regime makes calculations before launching any war, noting that victories by the resistance group made Israel understand that it will have to pay a very heavy price for war.

He further said Tel Aviv knows well that all parts of the occupied Palestinian lands are within Hezbollah’s missile reach.

Israel launched two wars on Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. About 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, lost their lives during the 33-day war in the summer of 2006.

Hezbollah is credited with driving Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon and defeating them in subsequent wars. It is also helping the Syrian army fight Takfiri militants in a war that the resistance movement sees crucial to preventing the conflict from spilling over to Lebanon.

Referring to the recent decision of some Arab countries in blacklisting Hezbollah, Nasrallah noted that the measure serves as a cover-up for Israel’s crimes.

The Arab League and the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC), both under the influence of the Saudi regime, declared Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization earlier this month.

The [P]GCC – comprised of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait -- however, did not provide any evidence for the allegation. This comes as the first three monarchies themselves stand accused of supporting extremists and terrorists in the region.

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