Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah appeared again today on TV via video link to praise the revolutionaries and protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, and Yemen for their “faith and high spirituality.”
Addressing the protesters he said : “We are with you and we are ready to help you “
He did not mention anything about the protests in Iran and Syria, despite the fact that several protests have taken place in Iran against the regime and 6 protesters were killed Friday by Syrian security forces and dozens were injured .
He rejected claims that the uprisings are US-manufactured, saying such talk is an injustice to these peoples and unreasonable because their regimes are US allies.
He also condemned embattled Libyan strongman Moammar Qaddafi for his alleged kidnapping of Amal Movement founder Imam Moussa Sadr in 1978, saying, “we are looking forward to the day when Sadr can be liberated from this dictatorial tyrant.”
Calling events in Bahrain a “special injustice”, Nasrallah asked whether Arab silence about the repression of protests there is due to sectarian prejudice against the Shiite-majority opposition.
“I ask some in the Arab and Islamic worlds: Why have you remained mum over the tyranny against our people in Bahrain, is it only because they are Shiites?”
” They sent troops to Bahrain to defend a regime which no one is threatening to topple (See photo). The opposition in Bahrain is purely peaceful and yet Arab armies are being summoned to confront it. This is a bizarre paradox.”
He dismissed the March 14 alliance’s recent campaign against non-state weapons as unworthy of serious discussion, saying that the fact that the campaign had not provoked armed clashes meant that “no one has a gun to their head.”
“The March 13 rally went on without any violent incident and this proves that their allegations are false and that no weapons are pointed at anyone’s head.” He said
He tried to reassured his audience that Hezbollah’s weapons are aimed at Israel and they alone are in a position to defend Lebanon.
“Should Israel threaten any Lebanese government that decides in the future to start oil excavation off the southern coast, only the Resistance would force Israel and the world to respect Lebanon’s right. How would we defend our oil and gas? Through poetry and neckties?”
He added: “Resistance’s arsenal of weapons will always be upgraded and will always be pointed at the (Israeli) enemy, but let no one try to harass us.”
Nasrallah repeated his accusation that some March 14 figures asked that Israel prolong its war on Lebanon in July 2006 to further their political goals and said that Hezbollah is preparing a lawsuit against some of them.
He also accused March 14 of obstructing cabinet formation by calling for a technocratic government, adding that the (new) majority will form a new cabinet headed by PM Najib Mikati.
Commenting on the imminent indictment by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon he said
“As to the STL indictment, we consider it already released and no Sunni-Shiite strife will erupt in Lebanon because of it.”
Popular protests have swept the Arab world in recent months, starting with the ouster of presidents in Tunisia and Egypt. The UN has approved international military intervention to protect Libyan rebels against Qaddafi’s regime and protests have been violently repressed in Bahrain, Yemen, and elsewhere.
The Iranian and Syrian -backed Hezbollah brought down Hariri’s government on January 12 over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) imminent indictment which is widely expected to implicate Hezbollah members in the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri in 2005
Nagib Mikati was appointed in January as the PM designate with the backing of the Hezbollah March 8 alliance and MPs Walid Jumblatt and Mohammad Safadi following the collapse of Hariri’s unity government. March 14 leaders have repeatedly said that intimidation from Hezbollah’s weapons helped secure the parliamentary majority for Mikati’s nomination.
Jumblatt and his PSP parliament members reportedly switched allegiance to Hezbollah’s PM candidate, following threats by Hezbollah.
Jumblatt, Mikati and Safadi were all elected on March 14 electoral tickets during the 2009 parliamentary elections.
March 14 parties have announced that they will not take part in the cabinet Mikati is currently forming, and Hariri vowed last week to fight the use of non-state weapons “peacefully and democratically.”
Photo: Supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah wave Bahraini, Egyptian, Tunisian, Libyan, Yemen, Lebanese and Hezbollah flags during the speech of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah at a rally in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, March 19, 2011, during which Nasrallah expressed support to people who rose against their regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Bahrain.
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