The massive maneuver, which is expected to take place until February 25, has already aroused resentful reactions from both the Iraqi authorities and Hezbollah fighting units located in Iraq, fearing that it might be the beginning of Saudi incursion into the country.
On Thursday, after initial reports about Saudi military movement on the border began to emerge, Hezbollah brigades started mobilizing their forces to the border to prevent a Saudi incursion.
Amid Saudi Arabia’s declarations that it is ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight ISIS, a military spokesman for Hezbollah in Iraq claimed that “the servants of the Saudi entity will never be able to deal with Hezbollah’s fighters.”
He added that “if the Saudi soldiers want to try to fight against us, they will have to write their names on their graves before they even think of resisting us.”
A member of the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi parliament told Iraqi media that the country will send a large military force to inspect any movement on the border. He claimed that any Saudi infiltration into Iraqi territory would be regarded as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.
On Friday, Hezbollah deputy chief, Sheikh Naim Qasser, told al-Nour radio station that Saudi Arabia does not have its own plans regarding Syria and it only serves American aspirations in the region. Relating the possibility of an upcoming conflict with Israel, Qassem claimed that Hezbollah is ready to confront any Israeli war against Lebanon.
