RIYADH – The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has criticized Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for threatening to send more fighters to neighboring Syria. “At the same time that he calls for self restraint, he threatens the Syrians that his party will be more involved in fighting them,” GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani said in a statement released late Monday. “This is a flagrant meddling in their (Syrians') internal affairs and an obvious violation of the Syrian sovereignty,” he said, describing Nasrallah's speech of being “irresponsible.” “Nasrallah continues to boast about the participation of his militia in slaughtering children, women and innocent Syrians, and destroying their towns and property,” Zayani said. He even boasts that he is “ready to double the number of his militia fighters and even to join the fight himself against the Syrian people,” Zayani added. “I will go myself to Syria if it is so necessary in the battle against the takfiris; Hezbollah and I will go to Syria” to fight rebels trying to oust President Bashar Al-Assad, said Nasrallah defiantly. Hezbollah is a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and has sent fighters across the border this year to bolster government forces, which have been battling an anti-regime revolt since March 2011. Meanwhile, a Lebanese and two Palestinians suspected of planning a massive car bombing have been arrested, just days after a deadly attack on Hezbollah's southern Beirut bastion, the General Security agency said. The men were accused of “setting up a terrorist group and conducting activities that affect security on Lebanese territory,” according to a statement late Monday. “They were preparing to stage an attack using an Audi car containing 250 kg (550 pounds) of explosives.” The car was seized in the Naameh area of southern Beirut two days after a car bomb killed 27 people in a bastion of Shiite militant party Hezbollah. On Friday, the government said the army identified a network of people suspected of trying to carry out several car bomb attacks in southern Beirut. The Thursday attack was the deadliest in Lebanon since a car bomb attack killed former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others in February 2005. – Agencies
