Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said the Gaza war delayed any Israeli aggression on Lebanon, saluting the Resistance for holding on their stance of lifting Gaza blockade as a condition for ending the War

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said the Gaza war delayed any Israeli aggression on Lebanon, saluting the Resistance for holding on their stance of lifting Gaza blockade as a condition for ending the War.

In an interview published Thursday by local daily Al-Akhbar, Sayyed Nasrallah said “Israel” is a cancerous tumor that needs to be eradicated, which should be the nation’s ultimate goal.

Secretary General pointed out that the most serious problem we now face, whether in Lebanon or the Arab world, is that people are now recognizing the existence of “Israel” as natural.

Sayyed Nasrallah considers that the Gaza war delayed any possible war on Lebanon, but “I cannot say anything more or less because it is not clear under what circumstances or data an Israeli war could be launched.”

He pointed out that the Zionist entity is recognizing that any future war would be much more difficult in terms of the capabilities of the Lebanese resistance, and the enemy is not likely to handle a war of attrition.

The S.G. said we disagreed with Hamas on Syria but this has not interrupted communications and meetings, and everything has remained natural. He stressed that Hezbollah's link to the conflict with the enemy and the realities on the ground in Palestine are not debated. 

On the subject of taking revenge of the martyrdom of Hajj Imad Mughniyeh, Sayyed Nasrallah said there was a set of objectives in Hajj Mughniyeh’s file and this is part of the security war between us and ‘Israel’. He stressed that the issue of revenge for the assassination of Hajj Imad Mughniyeh is still open.

Sayyed Nasrallah spoke about the facts in the July war and revealed that the capturing of the Zionist soldiers in 2006 was not a simple matter and it took months of planning to implement. He pointed out that we had the ability to hit Tel Aviv and we do not issue threat that we are not able to execute.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah revealed that it was possible that the Israelis would take the war to Syria because the Zionist entity holds Syria partly responsible for the steadfastness and qualitative armament of the resistance. He added that it was also on the agenda of President Bashar Al-Assad and the competent authorities to engage in the war alongside the resistance if a wide ground operation was launched in Gaza.

His Eminence also talked about the several massacres that occurred in the July 2006 war but said he could not say which one was the most painful. However, he said that there was something personal about the bombing of the Imam Hassan complex (in Beirut’s southern suburd) that martyred several people because of the rumor that he was staying there, when in reality he didn't visit the complex at all during the war.

Sayyed Nasrallah said that the only place he visited after the war was where the late Sayyed Mohamad Hussein Fadlallah was staying. He added, "During the war I met all the brothers involved in the jihad work and I was talking with Al-Manar and their Media Relations on our internal telecommunications network."

In response to whether he knew how the Dahiyeh has changed since 2006, Sayyed Nasrallah said: “I am not away from Dahiyeh and I know its details. I am familiar with what is happening in the South and the Bekaa as I don’t reside in a shelter or live in a bunker. Security measures means secrecy of movement.”

Gaza War
Sayyed Nasrallah said the course of events in Gaza wasn’t expected but it was not too surprising.

“It was clear that the Israeli enemy, not the resistance, drove events in this direction since the abduction of the three settlers. The way in which the Zionists acted was not the way of who’s searching for kidnapped persons. On the pretext of searching for the three settlers, they did all they could in the West Bank, by crushing Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front, and everything related to resistance. Things have evolved, and I tend to say that what happened was a ‘rolling’. The Israeli enemy rolled and so did the resistance, in the sense that no one planned for war,” he said.

“Some people, unfortunately, accused the resistance of engaging in war in order to revive its political role or to revive the Turkish-Qatari- Muslim Brotherhood axis. I don’t believe in that.”

In contrast, his eminence said, the Israeli enemy who monitors developments in the region is not rushing towards war. But when the ‘rolling’ happened, there emerged a chance and a threat. “The enemy wants take advantage of the opportunity, while the resistance was facing this threat, and trying to turn it into an opportunity. The Israeli side felt that as long as we entered this confrontation, it’s an opportunity, especially that Gaza is besieged, the Arab world is torn out, the region and the world are preoccupied, so are the interests of the Arab peoples. In the early days of the Gaza war, the enemy hit all the targets he had intelligence about, however, rockets continued to be launched from the Gaza Strip. So it found itself in a big trouble,” he pointed out.

As for the resistance, he added, and as long as the war was imposed on them, they took the opportunity in order to lift the siege. “This is why the resistance is not looking for a moral victory or a face-saving way out, but for a real achievement by lifting the blockade, even if it was costly. This is a point of strength for resistance, firstly because this was a united demand of all resistance factions in Gaza. And secondly because there is a real popular will in this matter.”

He said: People may differ with Hamas on running the Strip and factions may vary in their stances on regional events, but ‘lifting the blockade’, is a popular Gazan unanimous demand.

The Zionists, in Sayyed Nasrallah’s opinion, got “stuck” despite that they tried hard to benefit from their July 2006 failure. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the “Second Lebanon War” was present in the Israeli media.

In response to a question, His eminence said he believed Gaza war delayed an Israeli aggression on Lebanon, but couldn’t say how much “because it is not clear under what conditions or data can Israel wage a war, if it wanted to. Israelis after the July war and the lessons they figured out assume that any future war should lead to a quick and decisive victory.”

His Eminence Personal Life
The wide-ranging six-hour-long interview also touched on Sayyed Nasrallah’s personal life.
  
“I love football, and I used to play it with friends before and after I put on the turban,” he said. “I supported Brazil most of the time, and sometimes Argentina, particularly during (Diego) Maradona’s time. I liked the way he played.”
  
His eminence said he hadn't watched much of this year's World Cup because of the conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Gaza. But said he had watched part of the final that pitted Germany against Argentina "for my son's sake". “I watched part of the final match for the sake of my son and not for the game itself. I wanted to create a competitive atmosphere. And since my son was with the Germans, I stood by Argentina.”

He told the newspaper he hasn’t driven a car since 1986, has forgotten most of the English he used to speak and avoids mobile phones and the Internet for security reasons. “I don't have any direct relations with Facebook, but I stay up to date on discussions, rumors and conversations on it through reports on the issue,” he said.
  
On his favorite dish, the S.G. said: “I used to prefer dishes in the past. But today, there is nothing in particular. I eat what's available. Even if I am asked what would I like to eat, I say I don't have a problem with anything. This has been the situation recently. I eat what is easily ready, like the soldiers on the front, who do not have a choice of preferred foods. In the past, I used to like several dishes like moloukhieh(a green stew), moujaddara with rice (a lentil dish), and fish.”