“We have always said that we do not want war, but we are prepared in case it is imposed on us and we will do it firmly and we will triumph,” said Hassan Qassem, Hezbollah’s new leader.
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The new leader of Hezbollah affirmed this Wednesday in his first speech that the Lebanese Shiite group will continue with the same war plan against Israel as his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, killed more than a month ago in an Israeli bombing.
“The work schedule is the same as that of Hassan Nasrallah. We continue with the same war plan.“said Naim Qassem, in a televised speech in which he appeared next to the flags of Lebanon, Hezbollah and a framed photo of his predecessor, who always promised that the group would cease its attacks against Israel if a truce was reached in Gaza. .
In a calm tone, the septuagenarian cleric said that The Gaza Strip, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East face “an Israeli, American and European war with all its forces”denouncing that a “genocide” is being committed in the Palestinian enclave.
“We have always said that we do not want war, but we are prepared in case it is imposed on us and we will do it firmly and we will triumph, God willing”Qassem insisted, stating that Hezbollah’s only objective “is to protect Lebanon” and “support Palestine.”
Likewise, he acknowledged that the group “paid the price for its convictions of freedom,” in reference to the dozens of deaths of senior Hezbollah officials—including Nasrallah—since the start of clashes with Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip between the Israelis and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
However, he insisted on “Need” for group to respond to Israel’s “brutality” in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Don’t more than 43 thousand martyrs shake the world? Don’t a hundred thousand wounded people shake the world? Not even the murder of children? This crime must be confronted,” Qassem declared, referring to the deaths in the Palestinian enclave since the start of the war more than a year ago.
On the other hand, he recognized that the Iran “supports” Hezbollah but insisted that the Islamic Republic “wants nothing” in return, only “the liberation of Lebanese lands”.
“We welcome any Arab, Islamic or global country that wants to support us. We do not say no to anyone who supports us in the world, whether Western, Arab or any other. We will not say no,” insisted the cleric, who was named the organization’s new general secretary on Tuesday.
Hezbollah announced Qassem’s appointment on Tuesday, following the death of former leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli attack on September 27.
After nominating Qassem, the Shura Council promised to work with Hezbollah “to achieve the goals of the movement’s path and keep the flame of resistance burning and its flag high until victory is achieved.” This decision was made after Hezbollah confirmed last week the death of Hashem Safiedine, head of the group’s executive council and considered one of the main candidates to succeed cleric Nasrallah.
Israel invaded Lebanon after weeks of bombing and attacks against the country, including the coordinated explosion of thousands of communications devices, after almost a year of fighting with Hezbollah in the border area.
The Lebanese Government estimated that the Israeli attacks caused around 2,700 deaths and 12,500 injuries..
Hezbollah has begun bombing northern Israel from southern Lebanon in support of Hamas, which has faced a military offensive from Tel Aviv in Gaza since it attacked Israeli soil on October 7.
Iran has supported Hezbollah since its founding in the 1980s, and the group is one of its main allies in the region.
Tehran leads the so-called “Axis of Resistance”, the informal anti-Israel alliance to which, in addition to Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas, the Houthis from Yemen, and Islamic militias from Iraq and Syria belong.
Source: Observadora
