The Arab world has been divided over the Reuters killing of Hezbollah chief Nasrallah

By Jaidaa Taha

CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was met with silence by many Sunni-ruled states in the region, highlighting the divide between populations outraged by Israel and authorities who have normalized ties with Israel or oppose the patron Iran’s Hezbollah.

Nasrallah, who has led the powerful Shiite armed group for 32 years, has made regional enemies beyond Israel and the West. The Gulf states and the wider Arab League designated his group a “terrorist organization” in 2016, although the League withdrew its designation earlier this year.

Sunni-led Saudi Arabia said in a statement late Sunday that it was following developments in Lebanon with “grave concern” and called for Lebanon’s sovereignty and regional security to be preserved. But he made no mention of Nasrallah.

And the Sunni-ruled states of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have remained completely silent on the killing of Nasrallah. The UAE and Bahrain normalized ties with Israel in 2020, and Bahrain quashed a sizable pro-democracy uprising by its Shia community in 2011.

However, Bahrain’s pro-Iranian LuaLua TV station aired videos showing modest-sized marches it said were in mourning for Nasrallah. The channel said the Bahraini regime “attacked” the demonstrators and detained some of them.

Bahraini opposition website Bahrain Mirror reported that the kingdom detained a Shiite cleric for expressing condolences for Nasrallah. Reuters could not verify media reports in Bahrain.

According to a statement from the Egyptian presidency, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and said Cairo rejected any violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty – without mentioning Nasrallah.

Egypt has criticized Iran and its proxies in the past, although it has maintained informal contacts with Iran, and Egypt’s foreign minister has held official meetings with Iranian officials over the past year.

In the first televised speech since Nasrallah’s killing on Sunday, Sisi said the region was going through difficult circumstances and said Egypt was “managing its problems in a way that preserves itself and the region as much as possible without being dragged into problems that can impact its stability and security”. He also made no mention of Nasrallah in the speech.

Other states such as Syria and Iraq have declared a three-day mourning period.

MOURNING AND CRITICISM

Hassan Nasrallah’s name has been trending online in many Arab states since Saturday, with many grieving his loss.

Sheikh Ahmed Bin Hamad al-Khalili, the Grand Mufti of the Gulf state of Oman, said in a post on X that his country was “saddened by the death of the Secretary General of Hezbollah, after he had been a thorn in his side. the Zionist project for more than three decades”.

But other users criticized Nasrallah, particularly for Hezbollah’s intervention in the Syrian civil war. Along with support from Iran and Russia, that intervention eventually helped President Bashar al-Assad regain control of much of the country from anti-government rebels.

“Nasrallah’s victims in Syria are hundreds of thousands, does he deserve mercy from Muslims?” Iraqi journalist Omar AlJmmal said at X.

UAE journalist Saif alDareei shared in a post on X a video he said depicted the “joy” of residents of Syria’s Idlib province after news of Nasrallah’s killing.

“Hezbollah did what the Jews did not against our brothers in Syria,” he said.

Saudi poet Abdul Latif Al-Sheikh told X: “The outrage (over Nasrallah’s killing) is not just casual hostility, but a natural reaction to a series of dirty policies and actions that have sparked widespread resentment.”

Others have tried to balance criticism of Nasrallah and Israel, whose military operations in Gaza and recent escalation in Lebanon have sparked widespread outrage.

“Joy and rejoicing now means the victory of the enemy, the fragmentation of the (Arab) nation and the betrayal of the people of Lebanon and Gaza,” Egyptian TV anchor Lamis Elhadidi told X.

“Put your differences aside and forget about Iran because there is an Arab country that is being bombed every hour.”