IMPERIALISTS GUNNING FOR OIL-RICH REGIONS! – Lebanon and Venezuela prepared to resist them

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Marching in London in support of Venezuela
Marching in London in support of Venezuela

The masses of the oil rich areas of the world are under attack by US imperialism.

In the middle east the US and Israel are gearing up for another attack on the people of the Lebanon in the Hezbollah movement, while in the Americas the US is urging Colombia to attack oil rich Venezuela and remove its radical bourgeois leadership, led by President Chavez.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stressed on Sunday that its party would not allow anyone, whoever he was, to hurt the dignity of the resistance. This resistance, according to Sayyed Nasrallah, was able to crush the new Middle East plan in 2006.

Speaking in a ceremony honouring the martyr’s children at Shahed Institution in Beirut’s southern suburb, Sayyed started his speech by paying tribute to the resistance martyrs.

‘For 30 years, the martyrs have been the most important symbols of this country. They are the best victory makers of this nation. They protected its dignity and presence.

‘We, as a resistance movement, have offered the most precious of our sons. My leader in the Resistance, Sayyed Abbas al-Moussawi and my brother in jihad, Imad Moghniyyeh, are the most precious people I have lost’, his eminence said.

Nasrallah added that with these sacrifices, the Resistance is the most precious of what we have, stressing that ‘we will not allow anyone in the world – small or big – to hurt its dignity.’

Hezbollah Secretary General continued, ‘All plots that threatened Lebanon, Palestine and the region were stopped by the Resistance.

‘The Resistance prevented the plot in 1982 and the one in 2000 that aimed to accomplish the project of a greater Israel by invading Lebanon. In 2006, the Resistance put an end to the new Middle East project, which was highly funded.

‘This Resistance put Lebanon in the heart of the regional equation after it was inferior. It made Lebanon a player.’

Nasrallah stressed that the Resistance made Lebanon strong and that was why officials come to the country, adding that this Resistance was the reason that leaders meet Lebanese officials abroad.

Nasrallah also thanked all people who helped the Resistance in Lebanon, from Iran to Syria to all honourable people, however, he stressed that the Resistance was the one that fought.

He also said that everyone knows the value of this Resistance, including Lebanon’s enemies who are planning to take it away.

‘They may bargain on gas and oil but they can never bargain on the Resistance,’ he stressed, adding that the war on the Resistance will continue, and that US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman himself admitted this before Congress.

Nasrallah also said that the international community tried to bring the resistance power to an end in the 2006 July War and failed.

‘I will talk about this during the victory ceremony, which was postponed to August 3rd upon President Michel Sleiman’s request because he will receive prominent guests in Lebanon on July 30.’

Meanwhile, Venezuelan President on Sunday threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States if it gave support to any Colombian military attack on his country, warning Washington to stay far from the crisis.

Hugo Chavez said if Colombia were to launch an attack ‘promoted by the Yankee empire, we would suspend oil deliveries to the United States, even if everybody over here has to eat stones.

‘We wouldn’t send even a single drop of oil’ to the United States, he said.

Venezuela, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is South America’s largest oil producer and exporter.

Chavez said he had intelligence that ‘the possibility of an armed aggression against Venezuelan territory from Colombia’ was higher than it has been ‘in 100 years.’

‘Everything points to the Colombian government, and even more so to the United States – there you have the guilty one, there you have the great instigator,’ added Chavez, who is highly critical of a US-Colombian military base deal struck last year.

Chavez said Venezuela was ready to repel any aggression from Colombia.

Venezuela’s armed forces along the border with Colombia were placed under ‘maximum alert’ by Chavez, to prevent a possible military incursion.

The leftist leader broke off diplomatic relations with Bogota on Thursday in response to charges by President Alvaro Uribe that 1,500 Colombian guerrillas had set up camp inside Venezuela and were launching attacks from its territory.

At present, there are some 20,000 troops deployed along Venezuela’s 2,000-kilometre (1,250-mile) border with Colombia, according to military officials.

The United States on Friday threw its support behind its key ally Colombia in its latest row with Venezuela, calling Chavez’s decision to sever diplomatic relations with Colombia and put border troops on alert ‘a petulant response’ to Bogota’s accusations.

Chavez on Sunday hinted at a possible easing of tensions with Colombia when president-elect Juan Manuel Santos replaces Uribe on August 7.

‘We must get clear and unambiguous signs that Colombia’s new government has real political will to resume the path of dialogue (with Venezuela) without any tricks,’ Chavez wrote in an op-ed piece published in several newspapers.

Santos, who is on a tour of Latin America, has refused to comment on the crisis, referring the matter to the outgoing president.

Venezuela ‘will present a peace proposal for Colombia’ at Thursday’s foreign minister meeting in Quito of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said in a speech carried by Bogota’s RCN radio.

Chavez also announced on Sunday he would cancel a planned trip to Cuba in light of the crisis.

He was to attend Monday in Havana the 57th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s rebel attack on the Moncada barracks that kicked off the revolution that brought him to power in 1959.

Venezuela’s exports to the United States are almost entirely comprised of oil.

Last year oil exports alone reached 27.12 billion dollars, accounting for 96.5 per cent of all products exported to the United States, which remains the number one consumer of Venezuelan oil.