Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah noted on Monday that the Israeli enemy was forced to change its tone and to seek pacification on its northern border, warning that the choice of war has major and dangerous implications and it is not limited to Israel.
Sayyed Nasrallah’s message, delivered via a large TV screen, marked the Prophet’s birthday as a part of the Week of Islamic Unity in the Sayyed As-Shouhadaa’ complex in the southern suburb of Beirut.
He started by stressing the importance of Islamic unity given the current situation.
He noted that points of disagreement between Muslims can be turned into points of unity, emphasising that there should be no reason for the Muslim to be divided when there is a willingness for them to be united.
Turning to politics, Nasrallah noted that the Israeli enemy is indifferent to the one billion Muslims in the world and is seeking to include occupied Jerusalem within its territory and to include the Muslims’ holy sites in a so-called Israeli national heritage.
‘All this happens amid an Islamic and Arab silence only violated by minor denouncement statements,’ he said, adding that nobody is actually defending the Muslims’ holy sites except the Palestinians who are falling victims one day after another.
‘Israel doesn’t expect any response from the Arab street nor from Arab governments.
‘It rather takes into account the minority found in Lebanon and Palestine as to peoples; and in Iran and Syria as to governments,’ Nasrallah said.
‘This resistant minority has perceived its strength and refused to surrender,’ he emphasised, adding that it doesn’t fear death but rather wants to live with honour and dignity.
While calling on the nation to assume its responsibilities over what’s happening in Palestine, Nasrallah said that the entire Arab Nation has to thank Syria and Iran for standing by the resistance and to emulate these two nations.
‘It is unacceptable to doubt Iran’s intentions that aim at intervening to support the Palestinian cause,’ he stressed.
The Hezbollah Secretary General pointed to the change in the Israeli ‘dialect’ following his latest speech, believed to have changed the strategic balances in the conflict with the Israeli enemy.
Addressing Israeli President Shimon Peres who declared Israel’s failure and said that it pulled out from Lebanon for good, he said: ‘You will never return to Lebanon’.
‘You have exited Lebanon once and for all, and I tell you, you will never be able to come back to Lebanon.
‘When Israel was confronted with a stern and unyielding rhetoric, it was forced to change its tone and to seek pacification on its northern border,’ he said, noting that even Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is now saying that his country is unwilling to launch a war against any state. ‘They noticed that there is a new atmosphere in the region.’
He noted that what has been said on the Martyr Leaders’ Day was only a part, stressing that the Resistance has yet many surprises that will be uncovered at the appropriate time.
‘The Israelis know very well that everything we have said can be achieved,’ he added.
‘When we threaten Israel, we mean what we say, and Israel knows quite well that every word said would not have been iterated had there not been absolute conviction in the possibility of implementing and realising it.
‘What we have said is only part, not all, as we harbour surprises.’
The Resistance leader, meanwhile, said that the choice of war has major and dangerous implications and it is not limited to Israel.
‘The resistance is strong because it is embraced by its people, the thing that frightens Israel,’ he pointed out.
Nasrallah expected that the upcoming stage would be marked by a sort of ‘pressure’ on the Lebanese government but hailed the latter’s stance as well as President Michel Sleiman’s one as excellent.
In the same context, he rejected claims that the call to revive the national dialogue round-table came in harmony with American pressures.
The Hezbollah Secretary General said the Damascus summit is believed to be a sufficient response to the American messages to Syria.
‘All claims about a divergence between Syria, Iran and the Resistance in Lebanon are mere lies,’ Sayyed Nasrallah asserted, calling for an official defiance in the face of the Israeli pressures and threats.
According to Sayyed Nasrallah, the Israeli enemy will continue to collect data from Lebanon.
He recalled that the Israeli enemy has never suspended its security war against Lebanon through its agents, emphasising that the Israeli is seeking through this form of war to collect data on the Resistance’s arms by quantity and quality.
‘If we prevent the Israeli enemy reaching the data he’s seeking to collect, we delay the war,’ Nasrallah said, adding that one of the main characteristics of the Resistance is its ‘secrecy’.
He turned to the issue of agents and spying networks operating in Lebanon.
Addressing the agents and all those who can be induced, he said: ‘What you are doing is not only a crime against some people but a treason of a whole nation.’ He called on them to take lessons from past experiences.
Sayyed Nasrallah renewed his call to carry out the death sentences against those who have betrayed their nation.
Yet he called on those agents to return to their nation and ask for God’s pardon, warning that more agents would be uncovered in the upcoming stage.
‘I have said before, and I repeat today, yes to the death sentence for these spies. They should hang, and not just rot in jail for life.’
The Hezbollah Secretary General concluded his speech by warning the Lebanese government against sharing telecommunications information with the United States, saying any such move would be tantamount to collaborating with the Israeli enemy.
‘We hope that no party is involved with the US embassy,’ Nasrallah said.
‘Otherwise, we will have to adopt a very determined stance.
‘This is dangerous as it is a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, but its real danger lies elsewhere,’ he said.
‘Because of the strategic relationship and unity between the United States and Israel . . . any information gathered through such requests, like spy rings, reaches Israelis.
‘In other words, it is giving Israel information by proxy on a silver platter, and we hope there are no Lebanese citizens collaborating with the US embassy in the matter,’ he added.