HEZBOLLAH Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said on Friday that Saudi Arabia will be dealt a severe, historic blow in Yemen, stressing that victory was definite for the Yemeni people.
Sayyed Nasrallah, in an interview with the Iranian TV, Al-Ahvaz, said Saudi Arabia destroyed Yemen and abolished its unity and development. It’s depriving the Yemenis from their own natural wealth so that they’d remain poor and needy to Saudi Arabia. It has also been paying bribes and trying to impose its doctrine on the Yemenis forcefully,’ Nasrallah said.
‘I’m still confident that Saudi Arabia will be dealt a severe blow in Yemen and victory will be achieved there, but Allah will decide how and when would that happen,’ the Hezbollah leader added. Rebuffing lies about the dependency of the Yemeni revolution on Iran, Sayyed Nasrallah said: ‘Saudi Arabia wants others to believe that the Yemeni revolution is dependent on the Islamic Republic. This is a big and unfair lie.’
On Bahrain, he said the battle of the Bahraini people was a ‘historic’ one, ‘and according to the course of events, I believe it’s the battle of existence’. Talking about Syria, Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that Syria constituted a significant key factor in the axis of resistance and was a big factor in disrupting the US projects, the reason why they wanted to hit and destroy it. He hailed the steadfastness of the Syrians, saying it formed the basis for any help and solidarity from allies and friends.
‘Facts began to unfold before the Syrian people eyes that what was being brought in wasn’t ‘democracy’ but rather was ‘ISIL’s savage and defamed model’ that’s committing the most horrible crimes against people in the region, Sayyed Nasrallah said.
‘We’ve overcome the danger line in Syria in the light of internal, regional and international developments and the Syrian issue will take a new path. There’s a possibility that a serious political solution will be considered because the world has begun to think in a more realistic way’ Nasrallah pointed out.
‘Billions of dollars have been spent so far for the destruction of Syria in addition to the hundreds of tons of weapons and tens of thousands of fighters who were brought from countries around the world down to the sectarian incitement. The aim was to topple Syria and control it.’
Sayyed Nasrallah was confident that tyrants would be defeated if everybody took responsibility. ‘If we all shoulder our responsibilities, we’ll be able to defeat hegemonies, tyrants and plunderers, restore our decision, destiny and resources, and build our region and country. We’re hopeful.’
Speaking on the Islamic Republic of Iran and its constructive role in the region, Sayyed Nasrallah said: ‘The Islamic Republic is a hub of security, stability, will, civilisation and popular sovereignty. It’s preserving its place in the regional and international equation. If the Islamic republic wasn’t there, where would have countries and peoples of the region been? We’re talking of facts and our generation is witnessing it.’ The Islamic Revolution was a great blessing to the Iranian people and Muslims in general, but the problem was that there are those who are ignorant and unthankful.
• The so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) takfiri group killed a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria on Thursday, the elite branch of the Iranian military announced Friday. General Hussein Hamedani was martyred by ISIL terrorist operatives ‘during an advisory mission’ in the northern region of Aleppo, a Guards statement said.
Hamedani had been playing an ‘important role… reinforcing the front of Islamic resistance against the terrorists’, it added. Iran is a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supporting him with military expertise to defend the country against the operating takfiri groups. Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces, Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub said the Russian intervention had weakened the takfiri group, ISIL, and other armed terrorist groups.
Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces, Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub In a statement issued on Friday, announced a vast offensive to defeat the terrorist groups and restore army control over areas held by insurgents. ‘Today the Syrian armed forces started a wide-scale attack aiming at uprooting terrorists’ gatherings and liberating the areas and towns which have been suffering of the woes and crimes of terrorism.’
Russian air strikes had helped ‘weaken the fighting capabilities of Daesh and other terrorist groups,’ General Ayoub said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL. Quoted by Syrian state television, Ayoub said the strikes had helped Syria’s armed forces ‘maintain the military initiative’.
SANA quoted a military source as saying that the Russian air force, in cooperation with the Syrian Air Force, conducted a series of precise air strikes against a number of ISIL terrorists’ targets in Anadan, al-Atareb, Deir Hafer, west of Mansoura and al-Bab city, in the countryside of Aleppo province, which resulted in the killing of hundreds of terrorists, destroying tens of armoured vehicles, two Grad rocket launchers and a big ammunition depot.
Moscow launched its military operation against ISIL terrorists at the request of the Syrian government on September 30th. Since the start of the operation, the Russian military have destroyed at least 112 bastions belonging to takfiris.
• Militants of the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) takfiri group are hiding in mosques and using locals as human shields because they know that Russian jets will never target civilian areas, the Russian Defence Ministry revealed at two briefings on Tuesday. ‘ISIL forces are sheltering in mosques and trying to hide their vehicles around them,’ Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters Tuesday, citing video evidence.
‘Knowing our careful, respectful attitude to mosques they understand that we would never – under any circumstances – carry out airstrikes against civilian facilities,’ he said, following a meeting with Defence press attachés from several countries, with a US representative among them. Later in the day, Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, also warned that terrorists may be preparing provocations such as bombing mosques to accuse the Russian Air Force of committing war crimes.
‘As this example clearly shows, ‘moderate rebels’ would not hide behind civilians as human shields or, moreover, concentrate armoured vehicles under the arches of religious institutions. All of these actions can only be the calling card of terrorists,’ the Ministry of Defence commented on the issued video. Antonov also emphasised that Russia uses data from space and air surveillance – not only information gathered from the Syrian Army. ”We check the data a hundred times. Our decisions are well balanced, deliberate and calculated. We carry out airstrikes only if we are 100 per cent sure that we are hitting the right target,’ Antonov said.
Moscow launched its military operation against ISIL and other terrorist groups at the request of the Syrian government on September 30th and has already targeted a number of the ISIL infrastructure units hitting command centres, ammunition depots and explosive production sites, among others.
l Russia’s Defence Ministry refuted on Friday a US media report of an alleged incident involving cruise missiles which were fired at positions of the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) takfiri group in Syria on October 7. The Russian military stressed that all missiles hit their designated targets, challenging the CNN news network to prove its allegations.
‘No matter how unpleasant and unexpected for our colleagues in the Pentagon and Langley was yesterday”s high-precision strike on ISIL infrastructure in Syria, the fact remains that all missiles launched from our ships have found their targets,’ ministry’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
The American broadcaster cited two unnamed US officials, who said that four Russian missiles had crashed somewhere in Iran after being launched from vessels in the Caspian Sea. The report suggested that ‘some buildings were damaged and civilians may have been hurt’. This triggered a quick reaction from the Russian Defence Ministry, with Konashenkov saying that all the missiles had hit their targets on Wednesday.
‘Unlike CNN, we don’t distribute information citing anonymous sources, but show the very missile launches and the way they hit their targets almost in real time,’ Konashenkov said. The spokesman pointed out that the strike targets are being photographed before and after being hit, while Russian drones are monitoring the situation from Syrian skies 24/7. The Russian Defence Ministry has posted a number of videos to prove the accuracy of its targeting systems.