(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Saudi Arabia plans to deport Lebanese citizens who support Hezbollah because of the militant group's role in the Syrian civil war, the kingdom's envoy to Lebanon said.
The warning comes amid Hezbollah's increasingly prominent participation in the Syrian conflict, with members of the group fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad's government forces.
Saudi Arabia is a strong backer of the mostly-Sunni Syrian opposition trying to remove Assad from power. Assad belongs to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Shiite Hezbollah fighters were instrumental in a recent regime victory when Syrian government forces regained control of the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border.
Saudi Arabia will deport "those who financially support this party," Ambassador Ali Awad Assiri told Lebanon's Future TV late Wednesday.
He added that Hezbollah bears full responsibility for recent restrictive measures adopted by Gulf Arab countries against the group.
The Gulf Cooperation Council — which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — earlier this month said they would revoke residency permits for Hezbollah members in the Gulf and limit their "financial and business transactions."
For its part, Hezbollah says it has no businesses in the Gulf nations. However, there are more than half a million Lebanese working in the Gulf Arab nations, including tens of thousands in Saudi Arabia. Many of the Lebanese there are Shiites. Some have been living in the kingdom for decades.
"This is a serious decision and will be implemented in detail whether by the embassy (in Beirut) or in the kingdom," Assiri said, without specifying when the deportations would begin.
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