BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:50 P.M.) – The Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said that Iran was providing unconditional support to his organization in Lebanon in order to defend its lands and sovereignty.
In a speech delivered on the first anniversary of the assassination of the Iranian Quds Force commander, Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, Nasrallah stressed that Iran “stood by Lebanon and helped it liberate its land.”
He continued, “The resistance is the only body capable of protecting Lebanon’s oil wealth thanks to its weapons, Iranian and Syrian support, and it is one of the most independent resistance in history.”
Nasrallah accused the Lebanese media of distorting the statements of the commander of the Air Force in the Revolutionary Guard, Ali Hajizadeh on Lebanon and Gaza.
He said, “Iran gave missiles to Gaza and Lebanon in order for the people of Gaza to defend Gaza and the people of Lebanon from Lebanon, but you are forged and weak to the point of not making sure and adding to the words of any Iranian official in order to open a media front.”
Nasrallah stressed that Tehran supplies the resistance factions in the region with weapons “to defend its people and not to defend Iran … We in Lebanon cannot equate those who supported us with the position, money and weapons, who stood with us and martyred with us, and those who conspired against us or who supported the Israeli enemy.”
He said that the assassination of Soleimani and Al-Muhandis “put the American forces on the path to exit from Iraq,” stressing that “just retribution for the killers of Soleimani and Al-Muhandis” represents the responsibility of “every free and partner” in the world, primarily the Iranians and Iraqis.
He continued, “I say to the Americans, the Israelis, and those on their axis: When you kill us, our people become more aware, and when you kill our leaders, they become more stubborn and hardened and uphold the truth.”
He also criticized the decision of some countries to include Hezbollah on the list of terrorism, expressing his conviction that this psychological measure aims to “frighten the Lebanese.”
He added that he will deliver a new speech soon, in which he will detail the internal Lebanese agenda, especially the file of the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, which was recently breached, noting that information has been received about the United States paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to television channels in exchange for reporting on this association.
