Angry over Hezbollah's role in Syria, Saudi to deport supporters of the Lebanese group

BEIRUT — In the latest sign of the fissures growing in the Arab world over the Syrian civil war, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Beirut has announced that the kingdom plans to deport Lebanese who supported Hezbollah, one of Damascus' key allies.

The warning comes as the Lebanese Shiite militant group takes an increasingly prominent role in the Syrian war, fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops in a key battle earlier this month. Saudi Arabia is a strong backer of the mostly-Sunni Syrian opposition trying to remove Assad from power. Assad belongs to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

It follows the decision earlier this month by the Gulf Cooperation Council — which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — to crack down on Hezbollah members in the Gulf and limit their "financial and business transactions."

Hezbollah says it has no businesses in the Gulf nations. However, there are more than half a million Lebanese working in the Gulf Arab nations, including tens of thousands in Saudi Arabia, some of whom have been living in the kingdom for decades. Many of those Lebanese are Shiites.

Saudi Arabia will deport "those who financially support this party," Ambassador Ali Awad Assiri told Lebanon's Future TV late Wednesday. He did not elaborate on whether other actions could be also considered support for Hezbollah.

"This is a serious decision and will be implemented in detail," Assiri said, without specifying when the deportations would begin. "Acts are being committed against innocent Syrian people."

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour told reporters Thursday he was in contact with Gulf officials over the matter. Hezbollah and its allies dominate Lebanon's current government, which resigned March 22, but continues to run the country's affairs in a caretaker capacity.

U.S. officials estimate that 5,000 Hezbollah members are fighting alongside Assad's regime, while thousands of Sunni foreign fighters are also believed to be in Syria — including members of Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida affiliate that is believed to be among the most effective rebel factions. Public opinion in Sunni states is often sympathetic to the rebels.

Fighting between pro- and anti-Syrian groups has broken out in Lebanon, and Hezbollah's involvement in Syria is deepening tensions at home.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, who has been increasingly critical of the group recently, said in remarks published Thursday that he is against Hezbollah's involvement in Syria and that Hezbollah fighters should return to Lebanon.

"I told them from the start that I am against this act," he was quoted by al-Safir daily as saying.

In Syria, activists reported violence between government forces and rebels in different parts of the country on Thursday, mostly near the capital Damascus and in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest urban center and its commercial hub.

Pro-regime media outlets announced earlier this month that troops had launched an offensive to build on the momentum of their Qusair triumph to retake Aleppo and other areas of the north.

Another activist group, the Syria-based Aleppo Media Center, said rebels launched an attack on army positions in the city's Suleiman al-Halabi neighborhood. There were no immediate reports of casualties on the government side in the fighting.

Amateur videos showed gunmen shooting and firing rockets at army positions in the neighborhood. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.

Meanwhile, Syria's main Western-backed opposition group said 40,000 civilians in two northern districts of Damascus in which government forces have been operating are suffering food shortages and lack medical supplies.

"After six months of continuous siege, (and ) military checkpoints ... the neighborhoods of Qaboun and Barzeh are at risk," the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement. It said the government forces conduct frequent raids in the two districts and there is fear that such army operations will result in a "massacre."

The Observatory, which has a network of activists around the country, said three detainees died this week from tuberculosis and that scabies was spreading in the jail, which holds thousands of prisoners.

The prison, which is besieged by rebels, relies on food and medicine brought in drop-offs by army helicopters. The Observatory said more than 100 detainees have been killed since April when the fighting around the prison began.

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels and Kurdish gunmen reached an agreement to end a rebel siege of the northern predominantly Kurdish region of Afrin that triggered a shortage of food and medicine there, the Observatory said.