Nasrallah accuses Saudi Arabia, Israel of instigating Soleimani’s assassination

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Beirut/Tehran-

File photo of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

 Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militant group , who is currently in Iran attacked Saudi Arabia and Israel accusing both countries of being behind the US assassination of Iran’s Quds force leader Qassem Soleimani , who was assassinated nearly a year ago on January 3, 2020 by a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport   along with the deputy chairman of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and commander of the Iran-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah militia, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis , a person designated as a terrorist by the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Nasrallah says the Israeli regime’s forces are on high alert over the recent assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Iran believes Israel and an exiled opposition group used a remote-control weapon to shoot the scientist last November

Nasrallah made the remarks in a televised interview with the pro Hezbollah TV station Al-Mayadeen on Sunday night, according Iranian Mehr news agency

Potential target of Israeli assassination 

Nasrallah said he could be a target of the Israeli regime’s assassination operation as he is a Resistance leader. 

He claimed that the Saudi-led war against the Iranian backed Houthis in Yemen is based on hatred towards Resistance Front.

File photo of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels firing ballistic missile targeting the al-Yamamah royal palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Houthi-affiliated TV al-Masirah provided the photo. Saudi Arabia intercepts on almost daily basis all types of Iranian missiles

“Saudis have sponsored thousands of suicide bombing in Iraq in recent years,” he claimed .

Nasrallah claimed that the US assassination of Iran’s Soleimani was at the request of Saudis and the Zionist regime.

Nasrallah underlined, “I, along with other Hezbollah leaders are targets for America and Israel.”

“We have information that Saudi Arabia is instigating to assassinate me at least since the war on Yemen started,” he claimed .

Nasrallah added that the US approved the Saudi demand of which Israel is the one to implement.

He added that America, the Israeli regime, and Saudi Arabia are partners in the assassination of Soleimani and Al-Muhandis.

“The assassination of Soleimani and Muhandis was an uncovered operation, unlike the assassination of martyrs Mughniyeh and Fakhrizade,” Nasrallah added.

FILE PHOTO: Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (R) former top Iranian nuclear scientist and slain former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani. Both were assassinated in 2020. Iran is bracing itself for renewed attacks with few weeks to go before the Trump administration leaves office and as tensions rise in the region

“Hajj Qassem was a very special person on the humanitarian and moral levels. He had a special charisma and a strong ability to influence anyone who knows him. Militarily, he was the frontline man not the man in the operation room, he was the man of strategy and tactics. Politically and culturally, he was well-educated in various fields,” Nasrallah said

“In the last period before his assassination I was very concerned about him, especially after I saw how much Western media was focusing on him and highlighting his role and movement,” he noted.

Nasrallah went on to say that Muhandis was also a great commander and like Soleimani.

File photo of the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah , Hassan Nasrallah L and Gen Qassem Soleimani. Nasrallah is shown without the turban . Jan , 2020

He revealed that Soleimani had relations with Palestinian Hamas and was the one behind sending the organization in Gaza the Kornet missiles .

He said that “Kornet” are the same missiles we used in the July 2006 war. They are Russian missiles that Syria bought.

“Hajj Qassem demanded that these missiles be sent to Gaza and I proposed the demand to President Assad since he was the one to buy them from Russia, and he approved,” he added.

Nasrallah, whose Iranian backed militant group controls all the branches of government in Lebanon ( the presidency, parliament and caretaker cabinet) rarely appeared in public ever since the July 2006 war with Israel . He moved to Tehran earlier in December according to a report by Kuwaiti Al-Jarida newspaper.

The Kuwaiti newspaper reported in November that a source close to the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, had stated that Hezbollah had managed to uncover an operation planned by Israel to assassinate Nasrallah and a number of leaders in pro-Iranian factions in Syria, Iraq and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

File photo: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei L is shown with Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. In September 2019 Nasrallah pledged allegiance to Khamanei

An informed source told Al-Jarida newspaper on December 3d  that intelligence services in Lebanon and neighboring countries have monitored extensive encrypted communications between the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hezbollah concerning the move. Nasrallah is meant to stay in Tehran for an indefinite amount of time and it is unclear when exactly he will return to Lebanon.

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