Nasrallah thanks Jumblat over latest stances

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has expressed gratitude to Druze leader Walid Jumblat “in appreciaion of his stances on the war on Gaza and south Lebanon for the past 10 months, specifically over his latest stance on the rocket attack on Majdal Shams,” the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday.

Jumblat “confronted the attempts to stir strife and exploit the incident,” al-Akhbar said.

“The message was related by (Nasrallah’s) political aide Hussein al-Khalil to former minister Ghazi Aridi in a gesture of gratitude and appreciation for (ex-)MP Jumblat’s Arabism, patriotism and sense of responsibility during this period in which real men show what they’re made of,” the newspaper added.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of being behind the rocket that killed 12 children and teenagers Saturday in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a claim that the group has strongly denied.

Jumblat on Sunday blasted Israel’s accusations against Hezbollah as "lies."

“Majdal Sham is Arab and most of the Golan’s residents are Arabs who rejected Israeli citizenship,” the Druze leader added.

“Enough with lies, enough with shedding crocodile tears over the Druze Arabs in the Golan, occupied Palestine or Lebanon. Mere lies; this is Israel,” Jumblat went on to say.

He also stressed that Hezbollah is “a Lebanese resistance movement” and “a part of Lebanon.”