Hezbollah aids Syrian refugees

Terror group providing food, housing to displaced Syrians who fled violence to Lebanon. Rep: We owe them for support during war with Israel

Roi Kais|Published: 09.13.12 , 17:47

Despite its loyalty to embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been providing assistance to Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon.

The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported this week that a social-service organization operating under the auspices of the Shiite group is granting humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees.

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In a statement, the organization said a delegation of Hezbollah's Social Work Committee and Supply Committee (which is named after Ayatollah Khomeini) visited the displaced Syrians in south Lebanon and provided them with food packages.

"The refugees sent a special greeting to the resistance and to (Hezbollah chief) Hassan Nasrallah," the statement read.

חלוקת סיוע ללא אפליה. פליטים סורים (צילום: רויטרס)

Syrian refugees (Photo: Reuters)

Social Work Committee member Alhaji Mohammed al-Haj said Hezbollah was assisting our "Syrian brothers as part of the duty to return the favor for what they did for us in the July war (Second Lebanon War) and out of a moral and national obligation of the resistance."

MP Kamel Rifai, a member of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, said the Lebanese terror group's social-services organization is providing food, medical assistance and housing to more than 1,300 displaced Syrian families.

He said the group began distributing the aid six months ago, "regardless of the refugees' ethnicity or political affiliation, with the understanding that most of the refugees who make it to Baalbek are not opposition members, but people who escaped the death and destruction in Syria."

Rifai said the "assistance provided to the displaced Syrians is coordinated with European organizations."

Lebanese websites said Hezbollah is also providing food and housing to displaced Syrians in the Sidon area. The aid campaign is titled, "The Islamic resistance's present to the Syrian nation.

Opposition member Samir Nashar, of the Syrian National Council, praised Hezbollah's initiative, but said "if Hezbollah has changed its political stance regarding the crisis in Syria, it should say clearly that it supports the revolution of the Syrian people and not allude to it through humanitarian work."