BEIRUT – Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Thursday vehemently rejected accusations that it was involved in training members of the Shiite opposition engaged in anti-regime protests in Bahrain.
“We cannot remain silent as concerns accusations about training (regime opponents),” the Shiite militant group said in a statement. “The accusations are aimed at undermining the peaceful demonstrations of the oppressed people.” The statement was in reaction to charges by Bahrain’s foreign minister that Hezbollah was helping train regime opponents.
“None of our Bahraini brothers have ever asked for military training and we have provided no such training to anyone in Bahrain,” Hezbollah said. “Any statements to the contrary are a lie and slanderous.” It added that there were no Hezbollah officials or sleeper cells in the kingdom where the majority of the population is Shiite.
“All we are proudly offering (Bahrain) is political and moral backing as we did for the Arab revolutions in Tunis, Egypt, Libya and Yemen which is legal and part of our duty,” Hezbollah said.
