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Nasrallah: Hezbollah not planning attacks against Egypt | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Asharq Al-Awsat and Agencies, Beirut and Cairo – Hezbollah said Friday the Egyptian authorities had arrested a member of the group who was offering logistical help to Palestinians in Gaza, but denied allegations that it was planning attacks in Egypt.

In a televised address, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah denied the allegations leveled against him by Egypt’s public prosecutor that the party was planning to carry out attacks in Egypt.

Egypt’s public prosecutor this week said it was investigating accusations that Hezbollah had recruited a 49-member cell with the aim of striking inside Egypt.

Nasrallah admitted that Sami Chehab was a member of Hezbollah, and said that he had been working “to move military equipment and members to help the resistance” in Gaza. He added that “the number of brothers who cooperated with Sami is no more than ten.”

Nasrallah said, “We state very clearly, and we are always responsible for what we do, that Sami Chehab who is currently under arrest in Egypt, is a member of Hezbollah and we are not ashamed to admit this. He was carrying out logistical work to aid the Palestinians by transferring material and weapons to Palestine.”

An Egyptian source told Asharq Al-Awsat, “It is not easy to enter Egypt secretly. Nasrallah is hoping to make Egypt another Lebanon [where Hezbollah can carry out its activities].”

In his televised address, Nasrallah attacked the Egyptian press and the Arab media and claimed that there is an attempt to present “a new image of Hezbollah” and that it was “striving to sabotage the Arab countries in the same way as Al Qaeda.”

Nasrallah highlighted Hezbollah’s victory over Israel in the 2006 war quoting the Washington Post, which carried a report recently revealing that the US military was studying this war for its own future plans.

On Friday, the Egyptian security authorities discovered a missile workshop near the border town of Rafah, and arrested 16 suspects accused of having links to Hezbollah in Egypt.