Hussein DakroubHashem Osseiran| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah voiced support Monday for former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s call for a national strategy to fight terrorism, while exhorting the Lebanese Army to get ready to face threats from Islamist militants near the border with Syria when winter ends.
He also prodded the rival Lebanese factions to resume talks to break the 9-month-old presidential deadlock and not to bet on regional changes to elect a new president.
Speaking at an annual rally to commemorate the Israeli assassinations of ex-Hezbollah chief Sayyed Abbas Musawi, commander Imad Mughniyeh and Sheikh Ragheb Harb, Nasrallah devoted most of his speech to highlighting the danger posed to the entire world by ISIS and the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, after they committed atrocities that tarnished the image of Islam. He called for combined global action to confront the two militant groups, which have beheaded and burned to death some of their captives.
“We in Hezbollah, in the face of the danger of terrorism, support the call for drawing up a national strategy to fight terrorism. The political parties can agree on this,” Nasrallah said, speaking through a huge screen via a video link at the rally held at a Hezbollah complex in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The rally was attended by hundreds of Hezbollah’s supporters waving the party’s yellow flags, a number of Hezbollah lawmakers and political and religious figures.
Nasrallah was responding to Hariri, who called for such a plan in a speech Saturday, noting that terrorism is a common enemy.
The Hezbollah chief warned of attacks by ISIS and the Nusra Front when the snow melts along Lebanon’s border with Syria where the two groups are entrenched. He called on the Lebanese Army to prepare to face jihadi threats.
“There are Daesh [ISIS] and the Nusra Front at the opposite eastern mountains [in Syria]. When the snow melts, the state must make up its mind on how to deal with this danger that exists on hills and mountains,” Nasrallah said. He renewed his support for the Army and security forces in their battle against terrorism.
Nasrallah called for coordination between the Syrian and Lebanese governments and their armies to face the jihadi threats and the Syrian refugee crisis, saying Lebanon should not be wary of a re-emergence of Syrian tutelage over the country, describing it as a thing of the past.
Referring to the presidential vacuum after Parliament’s failure to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, Nasrallah called on the March 8 and March 14 parties to resume talks to break the deadlock and not to wait for the outcome of the U.S.-Iran negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program or a Saudi-Iranian dialogue. “I say to all those who are keen on preventing the [presidential] vacuum, do not wait for changes in the region and abroad because the region is headed for further confrontations and crises,” he said. “Let’s resume internal efforts to end this issue.”
Nasrallah said Hezbollah would continue dialogue with the Future Movement, which he said had produced “positive results within our expectations.”
“We hope to reach a positive and good conclusion,” he said. He reiterated his support for talks between any rival parties in Lebanon.
Responding to Hariri’s fresh call Saturday on Hezbollah to withdraw from the war in Syria, Nasrallah invited his rivals to join the party’s battle against extremists that he said had their sights set on taking over as much territory as possible.
“To those who call for Hezbollah’s withdrawal from Syria, I invite you to come with us to Syria … and I invite you to come with us to Iraq,” he said.
Nasrallah said that ISIS’ main target was Saudi Arabia, and Mecca and Medina specifically, noting that its self-declared caliphate would not be complete without enforcing dominance on Islam’s two holiest sites.
Nasrallah warned that the takfiri movement represented by ISIS posed a threat to all governments, regimes, peoples and armies in the world. “Daesh poses a threat to Islam as a religion and as a message,” he said. “Today, the entire world has conceded that this takfiri movement, Daesh, is posing a threat to the world and the region. Only Israel does not consider it to be a threat.”
He claimed that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, the Central Intelligence Agency and the British Intelligence were behind the creation of ISIS.
Nasrallah offered support for the Bekaa Valley security plan launched last week, saying that its implementation came late. Addressing Bekaa Valley residents, Nasrallah said that it is the responsibility of the state, and not Hezbollah or the Amal Movement, to enforce security in the area.
Security forces last week began raiding towns across the northern Bekaa to crack down on theft and the illicit drug trade. At least 137 suspects have been rounded up since the raids began, according to official figures.
The security plan requires a development plan to go along with it, Nasrallah said, such as the construction of hospitals and schools.
Speaking two days after Lebanon marked the 10th anniversary of the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, Nasrallah extended his sympathies to the Hariri family and the families of the 21 others who were killed during the Feb. 14, 2005, car bomb explosion in Beirut.