Hezbollah blames Iranian embassy blasts on Saudi Arabia

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has blamed Saudi Arabia for a twin suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut that killed 25 people.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an al-Qaeda affiliate that claimed responsibility for the attacks last month, "has an emir and he is Saudi, and I am convinced that it is linked to the Saudi intelligence services, which direct groups like this one in several parts of the world," Sheikh Nasrallah told Lebanese broadcaster OTV on Tuesday.

While Hezbollah and its regional backer Iran support Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, Saudi Arabia backs rebel fighters seeking his ouster.

The November 19 bomb attacks on the Iranian embassy came amid major regime offensives on several key fronts in Syria's brutal war, among them Damascus province and Aleppo.A day after the attacks, Saudi Arabia condemned the "cowardly and terrorist" bombings. In his remarks to OTV, Sheikh Nasrallah said the blasts that hit the embassy, which is located in Hezbollah's southern Beirut bastion, were "linked to Saudi Arabia's rage against Iran over its failure" in Syria. Saudi Arabia is "making Iran pay the price for the consequences of the failure of its plans in the region", he said. While Riyadh's regional rival Tehran has "tried for years to open the doors [for talks] with Saudi Arabia, the one that closed all the doors and windows ... was Saudi Arabia"..

"The problem with Saudi Arabia since the beginning is that it has dealt with Iran as an enemy," Sheikh Nasrallah said. "Saudi Arabia seeks to impose itself as the leader of the Arab and Muslim world, and refuses any friend or companion. It wants all the governments of the Arab and Muslim world to follow [its] orders."

He also said Iran's nuclear deal with the Western so-called P5+1 powers had "delayed war for the long run", even as it remains a "temporary" accord. Under an interim deal signed on November 24 with the United States, France, Britain, China and Germany, Iran agreed to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for minor relief from UN and Western sanctions. The Saudi government reacted cautiously to the deal, saying it could mark the first step towards a comprehensive solution for Iran's nuclear program, "if there are good intentions".

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