Beirut:

A senior official from the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah has made a landmark trip to the United Arab Emirates to facilitate the release of more than a dozen Lebanese nationals detained there, four sources close to Hezbollah told Reuters.

The visit at the invitation of the UAE could signal a significant shift away from the hostility that has long defined relations between Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and the Sunni Muslim UAE, a strategic ally of the United States, analysts said.

There was no immediate response from the UAE foreign ministry to Reuters’ requests for comments.

One of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, described Wafiq Safa’s visit as a “new page” in ties between the UAE and Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist group by the United States and its Gulf Arab allies.

Safa travelled to the UAE on Tuesday, the sources said. He runs Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination Unit, responsible for coordinating with Lebanese security agencies, and is sanctioned by the United States.

The four sources familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking said that the UAE had made contact Hezbollah with a message that they were seeking to release the Lebanese detainees, several of whom were serving life sentences.

The sources said the detainees had been arrested on charges including providing support and finance for Hezbollah, describing these as politically-motivated charges.

All four sources said the detainees would be released in the coming days and would accompany Safa back to Lebanon.

Two of the sources said the UAE asked Hezbollah’s ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to pass on the message before the start of the Gaza war, during which Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border.

There was no immediate response from Syria’s information ministry to a Reuters request for comment.

One of the sources said the visit suggested an effort to alleviate “some of the regional tensions”, without elaborating.

UAE foreign policy moves in recent years have included restoring ties with Assad, having once backed the rebels seeking to topple him, and normalizing ties with Israel in 2020.

The UAE began re-engaging Tehran in 2019, and Saudi Arabia re-established ties with Iran last year.

The tensions between Hezbollah and the UAE reflected a wider struggle between Iran and Sunni Arab Gulf states which fuelled conflicts including wars in Syria and Yemen.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, declared Hezbollah a terrorist group in 2016. The GCC imposed sanctions on Hezbollah in 2013 for entering the Syrian war on Assad’s side.

At a high point in regional tensions in 2019 following a drone attack on Saudi oil installations, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned the UAE and Saudi Arabia that they should halt the conflict in Yemen to protect themselves.

The UAE led Arab moves to re-establish ties with Assad in recent years. Syria’s membership in the Arab League was restored last year, after a more than decade-long suspension.

The UAE last year released 10 Lebanese nationals who had been detained there for two months, according to Lebanon’s foreign ministry.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah meets Jihad Secretary General Ziyad al-Nakhalah and deputy leader of Hamas, Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri at an unidentified location in this handout image released on October 25, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Senior officials of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have held talks with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah about achieving “real victory” in their war with Israel,” the Lebanese group said on October 25.

The Hezbollah statement did not specify when or where Nasrallah met with Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri and Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh beyong saying that it was at a undisclosed location in Lebanon.

News of the meeting comes as Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions exchange daily fire with the Israeli Army across the Lebanon-Israel border, raising fears of a new front in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

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The three groups are part of the “axis of resistance” — Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and other Iran-backed armed groups opposed to Israel.

They discussed what “the axis of resistance must do at this critical stage to achieve real victory… in Gaza and Palestine and stop” Israel’s “brutal aggression”, the statement said.

They also discussed “recent events in the Gaza Strip since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” — the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says 5,791 people have been killed, again mostly civilians, as Israel has bombarded the territory. Hassan Nasrallah and the Palestinian militant leaders “agreed to keep coordinating and daily following up on developments,” the statement added.

Hezbollah and Hamas have long been part of a “joint operations room” with the Quds Force — the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards — a source close to Hezbollah previously told AFP on condition of anonymity.

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“The meeting also touched upon the cross-border fire on the Lebanon-Israel border,” the statement said.

At least 52 people have been killed in Lebanon according to an AFP tally, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also four civilians, including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. Four people have been killed in Israel, including one civilian.