Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah railed against the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel during a speech on Monday evening, marking the second anniversary of the US assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
On January 3, 2020, Soleimani and al-Muhandis were killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport.
“The assassination incident established a new stage of awareness, insight and conflict,” Nasrallah said, adding that the people who ordered and carried out the assassination “will receive their reward in this world before the hereafter.”
Nasrallah blamed the US for creating ISIS and claimed America looted and tyrannized Iraq, adding that Iran “was the first to stand by the Iraqi people in the face of ISIS.”
“The martyr Qassem Soleimani resisted the American occupation and contributed to the establishment of the Iraqi resistance factions and provided them with money, weapons, strength, vigor, hope, confidence and enthusiasm until the great victory and the expulsion of the American forces from Iraq,” he said. “Is there a sane equation between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which supported and protected Iraq?”
“Tolerating or obscuring the presence of US forces in Iraq is a new killing of the martyrs Soleimani and al-Muhandis,” Nasrallah said, expressing outrage at the intention of the US military to leave advisers in the country after it withdrew combat forces.
The US’s “fate” was to leave the region, he said.
Regarding Israel, Nasrallah said the US “is responsible for all of Israel’s crimes in Palestine and in the region because it is the one that funds, supports, arms, protects and forces the world to normalize with Israel.”
He spoke about Hisham Abu Hawash, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member being held in administrative detention, who has been on a hunger strike for 140 days.
Nasrallah questioned how the Lebanese people saw the US as a friend, considering it stands behind Israel.
Referring to Saudi Arabia and the civil war in Yemen, he said Saudi Arabia was a “tool” being used by the US in Yemen. He accused Saudi Arabia of supporting ISIS in Syria and holding “thousands of Lebanese” hostage in the Gulf.
Nasrallah rejected statements by Saudi officials calling his movement “terrorist,” saying Saudi Arabia was terrorist for its action in the war in Yemen, while Hezbollah is defending its homeland.
In response to recent critical statements from a Hezbollah ally, the Free Patriot Movement (FPM), against the party, he said Hezbollah was keen to reach an understanding with the FPM and is still committed to the understandings already reached with the movement.
Nasrallah said he would address internal issues on another occasion.