by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Lebanese PM Saad Hariri orders al-Khazali banned from country, calls visit "flagrant violation" of the law.
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Shiite Iraqi militia
leader Qais al-Khazali at the Fatima Gate
on the border with Israel in
southern Lebanon
Screenshot: AP
A
powerful Iranian-backed Iraqi militant commander has visited the
Lebanon-Israel border expressing support for the Lebanese and
Palestinians against the Jewish state and sparking harsh criticism from
Lebanon's prime minister who ordered him banned from entering the
country.
Qais al-Khazali is commander of the
Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, a group
that staged spectacular attacks against U.S. troops before their
withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. He appeared in military uniform in a video
while touring the border with Israel along with members of Lebanon's
terrorist Hezbollah group.
"We declare our full readiness to stand
with the Lebanese people and the Palestinian cause against the unjust
Israeli occupation that is hostile to Islam, Arabs and humanity," he
said.
The visit could be seen as a message to
Israel that a possible war with Hezbollah in the future would bring into
the country Iran-backed fighters from around the region at a time when
Iranian-backed groups have a major presence in Syria and Iraq.
The visit was blasted by Lebanese Prime
Minister Saad Hariri who said in a statement that it is a "flagrant
violation" of Lebanese laws, adding that the appearance happened six
days ago. Hariri ordered al-Khazali banned from entering Lebanon again.
Hariri's office said the prime minister
contacted security officials to investigate the incident and prevent any
person or group from carrying out any military activities on Lebanese
territory.
The video was aired by Asaib Ahl al-Haq
al-Ahd TV station Thursday night showing al-Khazali along with several
other people in military uniforms as they showed him around areas
overlooking Israeli towns and villages.
In the video, an unidentified commander,
presumably from Hezbollah, gestures toward IDF outposts in northern
Israel and explains to al-Khazali that they were hit by Hezbollah
missiles in previous confrontations between the group and Israel.
"We are now on the border separating
southern Lebanon with occupied Palestine with our brothers in Hezbollah,
and announce our full preparedness to stand united … against the
Israeli occupier," al-Khazali said in the video.
Al-Khazali is later seen standing next to a wall on the border near the Fatima Gate in the Lebanese border village of Kfar Kila.
Al-Khazali's Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Hezbollah
are among the Iranian-backed groups that are fighting in Syria along
with Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces helping in tipping the
balance of power in his favor in Syria's conflict now in its seventh
year.
Jawad al-Tlebawy, a spokesman for Asaib Ahl
al-Haq in Baghdad, said that the trip to the Lebanon-Israel border
occurred after this week's decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to
recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Hariri's office said it happened several
days before Trump's decision, which has triggered widespread protests
throughout the Arab and Muslim world.
A commander in an alliance between
Hezbollah, Iran and Russia, said al-Khazali was accompanied by officers
from Asaib Ahl al-Haq and visited the entire border with "occupied
Palestine."
The commander did not say when the visit took place.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in
June that any future war waged by Israel against Syria or Lebanon could
draw in fighters from countries including Iran and Iraq.
News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2017/12/10/powerful-iraqi-militant-appears-on-lebanon-israel-border/
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