Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said in an interview with pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper on Wednesday that Hezbollah had trained Bahraini “elements” in Lebanon.
Last week Bahrain lodged a formal complaint to the Lebanese goverment over Hezbollah’s offer of support to the protesters, highlighting growing tensions in the world’s largest oil-exporting region between Sunni-ruled Arab countries and non-Arab Shiite power Iran.
In a recent televised speech Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah offered support to the protesters in Bahrain, but did not specify what kind of help.
“The accusation of training and attemping to give the issue of what is happening in Bahrain a military or security dimension is something that we cannot be silent about,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
“We have to affirm that our Bahraini brothers did not ask us for any military or security training on any day and we have not given any training of that kind,” it said, adding that the group had only provided political and moral support for the protests.
Hezbollah denied it had any cadres or Lebanese individuals operating in the Gulf nation “and Hezbollah does not have any cells in Bahrain, either composed of Bahrainis or any other nationalities.”
Bahrain also suspended flights to Lebanon and warned its nationals not to travel there after Nasrallah criticized Arab states for backing Bahrain’s rulers while supporting the rebels in Libya.
Bahrain imposed martial law and brought in troops from its Gulf neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, to quell weeks of unrest during pro-democracy demonstrations.
Twenty four people were killed in clashes between police and protesters, according to the government.
