Hezbollah keeps up film rhetoric

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A deputy leader from Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah called on allies to step further away from Israel following a series of insults to Islam.

Anti-American protests erupted in parts of the Middle East and spread across the world following the partial Internet release of a film produced in the United States deemed insulting to Islam.

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem called on Islamic states to sever ties they may have with Israeli in response to the film.

He said if countries in the region spent more time focusing on Israeli action in the region than on the civil conflict in Syria, the so-called Zionist regime would be faced with "difficulties," reports the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Hezbollah recently staged demonstrations in southern Beirut to protest the film. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah made a rare public appearance during the protests.

The U.S. Departments of Treasury and State in August sanctioned Hezbollah, listed as a terrorist organization by Washington, for backing the Syrian regime. Iran faced recent pressure for allegedly supporting Syrian weapons ambitions.

Qassem had said his group opposed foreign interference in the Syrian conflict.