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Saudi media regulatory summons MBC officials after insult to resistance leaders

US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (L) talks with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a rally with fellow Democrats before voting on H.R. 1, or the People Act, on the East Steps of the US Capitol on March 08, 2019 in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)
This file picture shows a view of the main office of Saudi-owned private broadcaster MBC Group at Dubai Media City, the United Arab Emirates.

The media regulatory body in Saudi Arabia has summoned officials from private broadcaster MBC, referring them to relevant authorities for investigation after the television channel aired a report that branded leaders and commanders of resistance groups in the region as “terrorists.”

The General Authority of Media Regulation (GAMR) announced in a statement that it had called in managers of the Dubai-based channel, and highlighted that the report was “in violation of the Kingdom’s media regulations and policy.”

The commission emphasized that “it continuously monitors the extent of the media’s commitment to the Kingdom’s media regulations and content controls, and will not be lenient towards any violation.”

Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission has already revoked the Saudi-owned MBC television channel license in the country and ordered the broadcaster to close its bureau in Baghdad.

The decision followed an incident where between 400 and 500 people made their way into the Baghdad studios of the Saudi broadcaster after Saturday midnight.

The MBC report categorized the Axis of Resistance, which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian Hamas, Yemen’s Ansarullah, and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, alongside figures such as Osama bin Laden, labeling them as terrorists.

Named in the report were Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in an Israeli strike on southern Beirut last month, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran in late July.

It also mentioned Haniyeh’s successor Yahya Sinwar, who organized Operation Al-Aqsa Flood (Storm) inside southern Israeli-occupied territories on October 7 last year.

For more than a year, resistance groups, especially Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as their partners in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, have been carrying out anti-Israeli operations in support of the Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has been conducting operations against sensitive targets across the occupied territories since October 7 last year, when the Israeli regime began a ferocious war on the Gaza Strip.

In response to Washington’s extensive political, military, and intelligence support for the Tel Aviv regime’s brutalities in Gaza, the alliance has also carried out retaliatory operations against the US occupation bases throughout Iraq and in neighboring Syria.


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