![Lebanese men watch the head of the country's Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah during a televised speech, at a coffee shop in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, on 30 August 2020 [ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/d2.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1228265718.jpg?fit=920%2C615&ssl=1)
The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah on Friday described French cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) as an aggression and likened Paris sticking by them to “declaring a sort of war”, Reuters reports.
In a televised speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said French authorities had worsened a standoff over the caricatures, which stirred anger among Muslims, by being stubborn.
The head of the heavily armed Shi’ite movement condemned this week’s fatal stabbings at a church in Nice, but said Western leaders also bore responsibility for such crimes because of their roles in Middle East conflicts.