Hezbollah says Egyptians fight for "Arab dignity"
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, lashing out at the United States for backing "dictatorships" in the Middle East, said Monday he yearned to be in Cairo to join the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak.
"The United States is trying to contain the revolution and improve its own ugly image in the Middle East and Islamic world … after years of backing the worst dictatorships our region has ever seen," Nasrallah said.
"But be sure that regimes allied with the United States and Israel cannot stand long against the will of the people," he said during a televised rally as the anti-Mubarak movement in Egypt headed into its third week.
In remarks directed at the protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, he added: "As God is my witness, I yearn to be among you, to give my blood and soul, as any Egyptian youth would, to this noble cause."
Arab dignity
Nasrallah added that Egyptian protesters demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak were changing the Middle East with their battle for "Arab dignity."
"Your movement will entirely change the face of our region for the interest of its own people," Nasrallah said in a televised address to a conference in Beirut, held to support the popular uprising in Egypt.
"You are going through the battle of Arab dignity, restoring the dignity of Arab people," he said.
Hezbollah — which opposes the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel — has had strained ties with Cairo for decades.
The militant Shiite movement sparked the ire of Mubarak in late 2008 by accusing Egypt of complicity with Israel during the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Last year, Egyptian courts sentenced 26 people for allegedly planning attacks on behalf of Hezbollah, which was seen as retaliation for its criticism of Mubarak.
The arrests soured relations between predominantly Sunni Egypt and Shiite Hezbollah’s backer Iran, with Cairo accusing Tehran of using the movement to gain a foothold in Egypt.