According to reports, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has criticised Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for threatening to send more fighters to Syria after a car bomb hit a predominantly Shiite neighbourhood. In a statement released on August 19, GCC Secretary General Abdul Latif Al Zayani said, “At the same time that he calls for self-restraint, he threatens the Syrians that his party will be more involved in fighting them.” Zayani described Nasrallah’s speech as “irresponsible” and noted, “This is a flagrant meddling in their [Syrians] internal affairs and an obvious violation of the Syrian sovereignty.” He was reacting to the statement of a defiant Nasrallah who said, “I will go myself to Syria if it is so necessary in the battle against the takfiris (radical Sunni Muslims); Hezbollah and I will go to Syria” to fight rebels trying to oust President Bashar Al Assad.1

• 1. “GCC criticises Hezbollah chief’s Syria threat”, Gulf News, August 20, 2013, at http://gulfnews.com/news/region/syria/gcc-criticises-hezbollah-chief-s-s...