By Wassim Mroueh, Thomas El-Basha BEIRUT: Hezbollah Secretary
General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah announced Saturday the large-scale involvement of his party in the
war in neighboring Syria, saying his party’s fighting against Syrian rebels aimed at protecting the
resistance group.
“We are now in a totally new phase that began a few weeks
ago. This new phase aims at fortifying the resistance and protecting its backbone, fortifying
Lebanon and protecting its backbone,” Nasrallah said.
“We will assume this
responsibility and endure all the sacrifices and consequences that come with taking such a stance,”
he said.
The Hezbollah leader spoke via televised screen, addressing a
rally in the Bekaa Valley village of Mashgara held to mark the 13th anniversary of Israel’s
withdrawal from Lebanon.
“As I have always promised you of victory, I
promise you victory again,” he said.
The party’s growing involvement in the
fighting in Syria alongside the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has become more apparent in
recent days. On Sunday, Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah fighters launched a massive offensive
against the rebel-held town of Qusair near the border with
Lebanon.
Nasrallah justified his party’s actions in Syria, citing the
danger of the growing presence of takfiri groups in Syria, repeated threats from Syrian rebels and
that his group would become a target of the United States and Israel should Assad
fall.
Nasrallah said that Takfiri groups, who consider as infidels
all Muslims not sharing their extremist ideology, were the prominent force in rebel-held areas in
Syria.
“We have been promised this disease will reach Lebanon and here lies
the danger,” he said.
“This ideology does not accept dialogue for the
slightest reason: it labels others as infidels and sanctions their bloodshed,” he said, adding that
takfiri groups would pose a threat to Lebanon, and all its religious components, should they seize
Syrian governorates, particularly ones on the border with Lebanon.
He also
said the Syrian opposition had from the very beginning of the unrest in Syria threatened to target
Hezbollah.
“Since the outset of the unrest ... some in the opposition
addressed us saying: the regime will fall and we are coming to target you in Lebanon,” he
said.
Nasrallah said the resistance could not remain silent and allow Syria
to fall into the hands of the U.S., Israel and takfiri groups.
“Syria is
the backbone and supporter of the resistance. The resistance cannot stand by idly when its backbone
is exposed,” he said. “We would be foolish to do so,” he added.
He
said that if Syria fell under the control of the U.S., Israel and takfiri groups then the resistance
would find itself cornered. Should this happen, Nasrallah continued, Israel would impose its
conditions on Lebanon and revive its designs in the country.
“If Syria
falls, then Palestine and the resistance in Palestine will be lost as well,” he
added.
Since the launch of the offensive on Qusair, Hezbollah has held
funerals for several of its fighters that have been killed in the battles with
rebels.
Nasrallah boasted that the morale of his fighters and families of
fighters who had been killed in the battles was high, despite media campaigns against
Hezbollah.
“We will continue to assume our responsibility as a resistance
despite media campaigns and pressures ... we have been on the terrorist list since a long time. This
makes no change,” he said.
France hoped Thursday an initiative could be
agreed by the end of June to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on the EU's list of terrorist
organizations.
“Since 30 years, we have been living not only in the
battlefield, but also facing a political and psychological warfare,” Nasrallah
said.
He reiterated his call for sparing Lebanon any armed confrontation
that could spill over from Syria.
“We are fighting in Syria, you are
fighting in Syria, let us continue to fight there,” he said. “Put Lebanon
aside.”
The Hezbollah leader said the ongoing clashes in north Lebanon
between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad should
cease.
“What is happening in Tripoli should stop ... let those who want to
support the opposition or Syrian regime go fight in Syria,” he
said.
Nasrallah also slammed the Lebanese state for not equipping the Army
or preparing the home front against any possible Israeli aggression.
“The
problem is that the Lebanese state has never treated Israel as an enemy,” he
said.
“Since 2006 and up till now, Israel held annual home front drills ...
now it says it has a strong home front and is ready to fight on all
fronts.”
“What preparations has Lebanon made? What did the Lebanese state
do?” he asked.
He said that the resistance group could only confront
Israel, slamming the defense strategy of President Michel Sleiman which calls for placing
Hezbollah's arms under the command of the Army.
“If we accept to place the
resistance and its arms under the command of the state ... it will be the end of the resistance,” he
said.
“We have a state that cannot stop the bloody fighting in
Tripoli or agree on an electoral law. Do you imagine that such a state can make a decision to
confront the enemy?”
Touching on parliamentary elections scheduled for
June, Nasrallah slammed the March 14 coalition of falsely accusing his group of seeking a political
vacuum in the country.
“We decided to submit our candidacies under
the 1960 law before March 14 officials in order to tell them that we oppose a vacuum, [and are ready
to run in the general elections] even under the 1960 law,” Nasrallah
said.
Although opposed by most political groups, hopefuls from various
political parties submitted their candidacies under the 1960 law on
Friday.
But Nasrallah said his party supported extending Parliament’s term
as another option as well.
Hariri: Hezbollah committing military, political
suicide
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri slammed
Hezbollah’s leader Saturday for intervening in the conflict in Syria, warning that the resistance
had sealed its fate by assisting President Bashar Assad’s fighters against rebels in the Syrian
border town of Qusair.
“The resistance ends by your [Sayyed Hasan
Nasrallah] hands and will. The resistance announced its political and military suicide in Qusair,”
said Hariri, referring to the Syrian border city where battles between Syrian government forces led
by Hezbollah and rebels have raged since Sunday.
“You have taken the
resistance to defeat in Qusair,” he said.
“You have carved in Syria and
with the blood of children and women and the elderly ... an abyss that you wanted the resistance to
fall into it. Your speech is a frank announcement that you have fallen into the abyss,” Hariri, a
staunch critic of the resistance group, said.
He also accused the Hezbollah
chief of inciting sectarian sentiments.
“You incited sectarian and
religious sentiments like never before [during your speech],” Hariri, addressing Nasrallah,
said.
During a one-hour televised speech, Nasrallah admitted his fighters
were participating in the conflict in Lebanon’s neighbor and vowed his group would secure victory in
Syria.
The Hezbollah chief, who regards the crisis in Syria as a conspiracy
by foreigners targeting Assad, described the Damascus regime as the resistance’s “backbone” and
argued that the toppling of the embattled Syrian leader would pave the way for Israel to target his
group next.
The comments by Hariri, who heads Lebanon’s March 14 coalition,
came only hours after Nasrallah delivered a speech on the 13th anniversary of Liberation and
Resistance Day – Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000.
Hariri,
who praised the Lebanese who had sacrificed their lives to liberate Lebanon from Israeli occupation,
also accused Nasrallah of hijacking the occasion, portraying the victory as one by Hezbollah
alone.
“I would like to salute on this occasion the souls of those who were
martyred during the march to liberation, stressing that the victory of 2000 is the [product] of the
single Lebanese will and unanimity over the right of Lebanese to liberate their lands and defend
them by all means,” he said.
“This truth has been hijacked on more than one
occasion since 2000 and Hezbollah, and its followers, want to regard it as an exclusive and partisan
right that concerns only one side that has the prerogative to struggle against the enemy and the
prerogative to possess arms and point them in any direction it chooses without the rest of the
Lebanese,” he added.
“The party is still adamant on turning this memory
into occasion for partisanship,” he said.
Hariri also accused Nasrallah of
using the occasion to denigrate the Lebanese state and all its
facets.
“[Hezbollah] uses the memory as an occasion to accuse the Lebanese
state, the people and the Army of shortcomings at the national level and the inability to provide
the factors for sovereignty and defense,” he said.
“Nasrallah has denied
the Lebanese state, the people and Army and civil society the ability to face anything,” Hariri
said.
“This state, in the eyes, beliefs and ideology of Nasrallah, is good
for nothing, neither at the political, security, defense or economic levels,” he
added.
During his speech, Nasrallah scorned the Lebanese state, saying it
was ill-prepared to defend against any potential threat from Israel.
“This
state can’t even agree on an electoral law,” Nasrallah told his
followers.
Hariri said Nasrallah’s ultimate objective behind putting down
the state was to usurp it.
“The solution for Hezbollah is for the party to
take the seat of power and that weapons remain in its hands forever.
During
his speech, Nasrallah also took aim at the national defense strategy put forward by President Michel
Sleiman, which the Lebanese leader envisages would place the Hezbollah’s arsenal under the command
of the Army.
Hariri slammed Nasrallah for his dismissing of Sleiman’s
plan.
“Nasrallah tells the president and all the heads of the National
Dialogue Committee that any talk of a defense strategy or placing of the resistance’s weapons under
the authority of the state is talk that Nasrallah has decided to throw in the party’s trash can,”
Hariri said.
“[By this] Nasrallah is telling all the Lebanese: don’t tire
yourselves for there is one side and one sect in Lebanon that is responsible about national
sovereignty and it alone is entrusted with defending the borders and possessing arms and the use of
such weapons at any time and any place it chooses,” the Future Movement leader
said.
“Nasrallah calls on the Lebanese and the president and all the
political leaderships and parties and sects to acknowledge Hezbollah’s state whose word rises above
the word and will of the Lebanese republic,” he added.
Hariri said
Nasrallah had devised an “ingenious fatwa” for sanctioning Lebanese taking up arms and fighting
wherever they chose.
“You Lebanese, if you want to fight, then Nasrallah
has invented an ingenious fatwa for fighting. You Lebanese can now fight on Syrian soil and send
projects of death and martyrs to Qusair and Homs’ outskirts,” Hariri
said.
“We say to Nasrallah bluntly and honestly, you can shout whatever you
want and you can threaten, launch accusations and describe the state in whatever terms pleases you
... your latest speech is worth nothing,” he said.
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