Sheikh Qassem: Hezbollah to vanquish Israel as in 2006
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem pledged that the Lebanese resistance group will win the current war with Israel just as in the confrontation in 2006.
He made the remarks on Monday as he delivered a televised speech broadcast live in Beirut in commemoration of late Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated by the Israeli regime in the suburbs of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday.
“We will win, just as we won in our confrontation with Israel in 2006,” Sheikh Naim Qassem said.
Qassem also vowed that the Lebanese group will continue the path paved by its late leader Nasrallah, and will achieve the goals he set.
“Despite the loss of our leaders and the great sacrifices, we will not renounce our stances and the resistance will continue to assist Palestine. We have persevered despite all the attacks,” he said.
“We will continue Nasrallah’s path and Hezbollah will continue its goals. Hezbollah’s operations continued after its late leader’s assassination,” he underlined.
Israel has not hit Hezbollah’s military capabilities, said Sheikh Naim Qassem. Despite the setbacks suffered during the bombardment of Lebanon by Israel in recent days, he insisted that the group will continue to fight.
Hezbollah’s operations have continued at the same pace and more since the killing of leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, Qassem asserted.
He added that Hezbollah will install a new leadership soon via “internal mechanisms”. The choice of new leadership is clear, Qassem continued, without offering further details.
“We are quite ready, if the Israelis want a ground incursion, the resistance forces are ready for that,” Qassem declared.
Hezbollah will continue with its main goals despite Israel’s aim of creating chaos with aggression and massacres against civilians in Lebanon, Qassem continued.
“Israel is committing massacres in all areas of Lebanon until there is no house left without traces of Israeli aggression in it,” he said. “Israel attacks civilians, ambulances, children and the elderly. It does not fight fighters, but rather commits massacres.”
Qassem also underlined the role of the US, which he called “a partner with Israel, through unlimited military support – culturally, politically, financially.”
Israel has in recent days been mounting heavy air strikes in Lebanon against Hezbollah, killing more than 1,600 people, including several senior officials of the movement and a top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
For the first time since stepping up its attacks on Lebanon, Israel on Monday struck a central area of Beirut, signaling further potential escalation towards an all-out war.
With signs indicating a likely Israeli ground offensive, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said on Monday in a news conference that the government remains committed to an immediate cease-fire.
With that in mind, he said, Beirut is prepared to deploy the army in the south of the country to implement a United Nations resolution aimed at preventing war with Israel by ending Hezbollah’s armed presence south of the Litani River.
Mikati said Lebanon was ready to fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and deploy the army south of the river, which lies about 30km (20 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border.