HEZBOLLAH Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has hailed the new acts of heroism by Palestinians against Israel, saying the Lebanese resistance movement will continue to stand with the Palestinian people to achieve victory.
Nasrallah made the remarks in a televised speech on Monday during which he addressed the latest developments in Palestine and expressed Hezbollah’s solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle against the Israeli occupation.
‘We must stand with all reverence and pride before the heroism of the men, youth, women, children and elderly of occupied Palestine,’ Nasrallah said.
‘What is happening in occupied Palestine has great implications regarding the conflict with the enemy, and the future of the Israeli entity.’
Addressing the Israeli regime, Nasrallah said, ‘If you are betting on the despair and frustration of the Palestinian people, then you are delusional. If you think that the Arab betrayal will lead to the retreat of Palestinian youths, then you are delusional.’
Nasrallah also said Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians would make them more determined in their resistance against the regime’s occupation.
What is happening in and around occupied Palestine needs a ‘long pause, and more support and solidarity,’ Nasrallah said, expressing ‘absolute support’ for the Palestinian people and their resistance.
‘We are their partners in this battle and in making victory,’ he added.
Palestinians have ramped up retaliatory attacks against Israeli forces in recent weeks, carrying out a series of operations that have killed at least 14 Israelis since March 22. Eight Palestinians have also been killed during the same period.
Last Thursday evening, a Palestinian youth form the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, identified as Ra’ad Fathi Hazem, entered a pub on a crowded main street of Tel Aviv and began shooting, killing three Israelis and wounding more than a dozen others.
Last week, a Palestinian man identified as Diaa Hamarsheh killed five Israelis, including a policeman, before being shot dead in the ultra-orthodox town of Bnei Brak east of Tel Aviv. The operation came days after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded four others in a shooting attack in the northern Israeli city of Hadera before being shot dead.
The occupying regime has since the start of Ramadan scaled up its crackdown on Palestinians who gather for Iftar, a meal served at the end of the fasting day during the holy month. Israel has also deployed a large number of its forces to disperse worshippers. The violence, repeated on a daily basis, has led to fierce clashes between Israelis and Palestinians across the occupied territories.
Pointing to the electoral process in Lebanon and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 15, the Hezbollah chief said: ‘There is an atmosphere transmitted from the US embassy and other embassies that the current parliamentary majority will maintain its position.’
‘We have the right to accuse the US embassy of seeking to postpone the parliamentary elections,’ Nasrallah said. ‘There is a whisper in some embassies to postpone the parliamentary elections, in order to arrange the affairs of the other party.’
Nasrallah said one of the objectives of talking about postponing the elections may be to reduce the citizens’ enthusiasm to participate.
‘We consider that we are waging an electoral battle, and we must participate with all enthusiasm in the polls.’
Addressing a two-month truce brokered by the United Nations in Yemen, Nasrallah said: ‘We are happy with the armistice in Yemen and all our political discourse was to stop the aggression.’
‘The Yemenis imposed their will on the international community through their steadfastness and fighting,’ the Hezbollah chief added, expressing hope that the truce would be an entry point for a political solution.
Nasrallah took a swipe at the countries waging a devastating war on Yemen.
‘Who is sabotaging Arab relations, who takes a position on the aggression against Yemen, or who has launched a devastating military aggression seven years ago?’ he asked.
Nasrallah said: ‘What we have been asking for from the beginning is to stop the war and massacres.
‘The only solution in Yemen is to negotiate and talk directly with Sana’a.’
Earlier this month, UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg announced a ceasefire, that came into effect on April 2 and could be renewed with consent of the parties.
- The chairman of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council says the United Nations should set the reopening of Sana’a airport as its first priority, as tens of thousands of critically ill Yemeni patients are in need of life-saving treatment abroad amid a crippling Saudi-led siege.
During a meeting with visiting UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg in Sana’a on Tuesday, Mahdi al-Mashat stated that the patients are stranded with the airport closure, stressing the need for the removal of restrictions on the entry of vessels carrying oil derivatives and natural gas into the port of Hudaydah and the lifting of the Saudi-led siege.
‘Members of the (Riyadh-led) coalition of aggression must adhere to their obligations concerning the humanitarian dimension of the (UN-brokered) truce. Thousands of patients are expectantly waiting for the reopening of Sana’a airport, so that they can travel abroad for treatment,’ Mashat noted.
Earlier, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, questioned the purpose of the UN envoy’s visit to the country, especially as the logical and legitimate demands of the popular Ansarullah resistance movement have not been met yet.
‘Have banking services and payroll been resumed, or the pledges made by the United States about the transfer of patients been fulfilled? What has really been done?’ Houthi wrote in a post published on his Twitter page.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western states.
The objective was to bring back to power former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.
The war has stopped well short of all of its goals, despite killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and turning the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
- Amid boiling public rage over the presence of American occupation forces in the energy-rich part of northeastern Syria, residents of two neighbouring villages have blocked a US military convoy in the province of Hasakah as it was attempting to pass through their community.
According to a report published by Syria’s official news agency SANA, the convoy of four armoured vehicles was forced to turn around and head back in the directions it came from, after locals of the village of Hamou, which lies on the southern outskirts of Qamishli city, and Tal Barisha village intercepted it on Tuesday.
SANA added that the convoy was accompanied by a car belonging to US-sponsored and Kurdish-led militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The development came two days after a US convoy of five US military vehicles was forced to retreat after locals of the village of Salhia Harb village, backed by Syrian army troops, blocked the road and prevented its movement.
The villagers hurled rocks at the vehicles. No injuries were reported.
On Monday, SANA reported that US occupation forces are training a group of Daesh Takfiri terrorists in the countryside of Hasakah province to carry out various acts of terror.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a number of the terrorists have been trained at the US military base in al-Shaddadi town over the past few days on how to fire rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), shoulder-launched rockets as well as anti-armour and anti-aircraft missiles.
The sources added that the Takfiris are set to be transferred within a short period of time to Jazira Region in the eastern Syrian province of Dayr al-Zawr and the Syrian desert, northeast of the capital Damascus, to attack positions of Syrian army forces, vital facilities and popular gatherings.
The US military has stationed forces and equipment in eastern and northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of the Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, says the unlawful deployment is meant to plunder the country’s resources.
Former US president Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in Syria for its oil.
After failing to oust the Syrian government with the help of its proxies and direct involvement in the conflict, the US government has now stepped up its economic war on the Arab country.
