Statement from Hizbullah about Bahrain

The below statement raises an excellent point about the Bahraini government's attempt to undermine the peaceful nature of recent protests. Bahrainis were in the streets marching for democratic freedoms and not waging a guerrilla war. Of course the list of peaceful protest movements in the Middle East extends beyond the countries listed in the below statement, whether one supports the politics of the protesters or not. That, alas, is democracy.

In His Name be He Exalted

Commenting on the Bahraini Foreign Minister's recent remarks in which he accused Hezbollah of training Bahrainis who participated in the recent protests in addition to other charges, Hezbollah issued the following statement:

First: We have expressed our political stance on what had and has been going on in Bahrain through the speech by the Secretary-General his Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. We have heard many responses and various charges but preferred not to engage in political or press debate with Bahraini officials; therefore, we did not comment on the false accusations that they had reported or the unfair judgments they made against Hezbollah. We considered all that as the price of saying that which is right and must be said.

Second: As for the charge of training and the attempt to give a military or security dimension to what happened in Bahrain, this is something to which it is not correct to remain silent besides being an endeavor to undermine the peacefulness of the movement by the oppressed people there; thus, it was necessary for us to emphasize the following:

A – No one of the Bahraini brothers has ever requested from us military or security training in any given day, nor have we, furthermore, done any training of this sort to anyone in Bahrain. Any other say is lying and fabrication.

B – There are not in Bahrain any Lebanese cadres or individuals affiliated with Hezbollah. Hezbollah does not have any cells in Bahrain, neither of Bahrainis or from any other nationalities.

C – What we offer, with utmost pride, is mere political and moral support, as is the case with Arab revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and this is a legitimate duty carried out by many countries, governments, political parties, scholars and associations in many locations in the world.

In conclusion, we, in Hezbollah, renew our condemnation of all the arbitrary and repressive measures exercised by the government in Bahrain against its people and urge them to stop this and to truly respond to the natural and legitimate demands made by this oppressed people.