By Trans Asia News
Beirut- Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the iconic Arab and Muslim figure to mobilize and lead resistance against the American-Israel hegemony in the Middle East was assassinated by Israel in a ferocious aerial attack on his headquarters in Lebanese capital on Friday. Experts call his killing a political earthquake that is bound to trigger an “all out war”.
The Hezbollah movement said in a statement it would continue its battle against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people”.
“His eminence the Sayyed, the leader of the Resistance, the pious servant of God, has passed on to God as a great leader, a brave martyr, joining the martyrs of Karbala…on the path of prophets,” the statement issued by Hezbollah said.
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, joined his great, eternal companions, whose journey he led for over 30 years through victory after victory” after succeeding Sayyed Abbas al-Mousawi in 1992, leading them in “the liberation of Lebanon in 2000 and the Divine Victory of 2006,” and up to the battle of support for Palestine and the oppressed people of Palestine.
Hezbollah extended its condolences to the Islamic nation and the steadfast people of Lebanon, and all the free and oppressed people of the world, congratulating Sayyed Hassan on achieving the greatest of divine gifts, through which he was granted his greatest wish, that of a martyr on the path of Palestine and al-Quds.
In the statement, Hezbollah’s leadership promised Sayyed Nasrallah, “our greatest, holiest, and most beloved leader in our path filled with martyrs and sacrifice, to continue its struggle against the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its honorable, resilient people.”
Experts believe the assassination of Sayyed Nasrallah tantamount to an earthquake for the region.
“Nasrallah was the beating heart of Hezbollah.” Professor Fawaz Gerges, Chair of Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies at London School of Economics said, adding his assassination marks the start of an “all out war”.
While Nasrallah’s killing is unlikely to disrupt the operational continuity of the movement it is “obviously a massive, massive demoralization amongst its ranks and supporters and absolute terror which will temporarily paralyze ordinary people” within the movement, said Amal Saad, Hezbollah expert and lecturer in politics and international relations at Cardiff University in Wales.“That doesn’t mean the organization is paralyzed,” she added. “Hezbollah is an organization that was built to absorb these types of shocks… it’s built to be resilient and outlast individual leaders.”
Observers say 64 year old Nasrallah was not an ordinary leader. Since 1992, he has been steering Hezbollah that has been a thorn in Israel’s side and a symbol of resistance for many in Lebanon and the broader Arab world.
Sayyed Nasrallah led the group for nearly three decades overseeing its transformation into a formidable political, social and military force with regional sway and becoming one of the most prominent Arab and Muslim figures in generations.
He will be remembered among his supporters for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. His regional influence was on display over nearly a year of conflict ignited by the Gaza war, as Hezbollah entered the fray by firing on Israel from southern Lebanon in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, and Yemeni and Iraqi groups followed suit, operating under the umbrella of “The Axis of Resistance”.
“We are facing a great battle,” Nasrallah said in an August 1 speech at the funeral of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut.
Yet when thousands of Hezbollah members were injured and dozens killed, when their communications devices exploded in an coordinated Israeli attack last week, that battle began to turn against his group.
Responding to the attacks on Hezbollah’s communications network in a Sept. 19 speech, Sayyed Nasrallah vowed to punish Israel.”This is a reckoning that will come, its nature, its size, how and where? This is certainly what we will keep to ourselves and in the narrowest circle even within ourselves,” he said.
He had not given a broadcast address since then.
Israel has meanwhile dramatically escalated its attacks, killing several senior Hezbollah commanders in targeted strikes and unleashing a massive bombardment in Hezbollah-controlled areas of Lebanon, which has killed hundreds of civilians, including children.
A charismatic and shrewd strategist, idolized by majority of Lebanese and respected by millions of others across the Arab and Islamic world, Hassan Nasrallah was a fiery orator. His speeches—delivered from secret locations to avoid assassination— were followed by friend and foe alike the world over. Considered an extremist by the West Nasrallah was considered a pragmatist politician by astute Middle East observers.
Wearing the black turban of a Sayyed, or a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh), Sayyed Nasrallah used his addresses to rally Hezbollah’s base but also to deliver carefully calibrated threats, often wagging his finger as he did so.
He became secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992 aged just 35, the public face of a once shadowy group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to fight Israeli occupation forces. Israel killed his predecessor, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, in a helicopter attack. Nasrallah led Hezbollah when its guerrillas finally drove Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.
DIVINE VICTORY
Conflict with Israel largely defined his leadership. He declared “Divine Victory” in 2006 after Hezbollah waged 34 days of war with Israel, winning the respect of many ordinary Arabs who had grown up watching Israel defeat their armies.
But his biggest challenge came when Hezbollah widened its area of operations to help the friendly government in Syria defeat the armed rebellion overtly and covertly backed by the US and its regional allies. Syria still acts as a strategic land bridge between Iran and Lebanon; its fall would have choked the lifeline for resistance forces stationed in Lebanon and Palestine.
In the years following the 2006 war, Nasrallah has been walking a tightrope over a new conflict with Israel, hoarding Iranian supplied military arsenal in a carefully measured contest of threat and counter threat.
The Gaza war, ignited by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, prompted Hezbollah’s worst conflict with Israel since 2006, costing the group hundreds of its fighters including top commanders.
After years of entanglements elsewhere, the conflict put renewed focus on Hezbollah’s historic struggle with Israel.
“We are here paying the price for our front of support for Gaza, and for the Palestinian people, and our adoption of the Palestinian cause,” Nasrallah said in the August 1 speech.
Nasrallah grew up in Beirut’s impoverished Karantina district. His family hail from Bazouriyeh, a village in Lebanon’s predominantly Shia south which today forms Hezbollah’s political heartland.
He was part of a generation of young Lebanese Shia whose political outlook was shaped by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.Before leading the group, he used to spend nights with frontline guerrillas fighting Israel’s occupying army. His teenage son, Hadi, died in battle in 1997, a loss that strengthened his image among his core constituency in Lebanon.
POWERFUL ENEMIES
He had a track record of threatening powerful enemies.
As regional tensions escalated after the eruption of the Gaza war, Nasrallah issued a thinly veiled warning to U.S. warships in the Mediterranean, telling them: “We have prepared for the fleets with which you threaten us.
“In 2020, Nasrallah vowed that U.S. soldiers would leave the region in coffins after legendary Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was assassinated by the US in a drone strike in Iraq.
He expressed fierce opposition to Saudi Arabia over its armed intervention in Yemen, where, with U.S. and other allied support, Riyadh sought to roll back the Iran-aligned Ansarallah.
As regional tensions rose in 2019 following an attack on Saudi oil facilities, he said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should halt the Yemen war to protect themselves.
“Don’t bet on a war against Iran because they will destroy you,” he said in a message directed at Riyadh. Saudi’s soon after declared a unilateral truce in Yemen.
Sayyed Khamenei: Fate Of Region Will Be Shaped By Resistance
In his first reaction Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei said “the Zionist criminals should know that they are too small to cause significant damage to the strong construction of Hezbollah in Lebanon”.
In a statement on Saturday he said resistance forces are the ones to decide the fate of the region despite the criminal Israeli massacres.
“The killing of defenseless people in Lebanon once again revealed to everyone the ferocity of the Zionist rabid dog, and proved the short-sightedness and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime,” he said.
“Now they are trying the same foolish policy in Lebanon. The Zionist criminals should know that they are too small to cause significant damage to the strong construction of Hezbollah in Lebanon. All the resistance forces of the region are with Hezbollah and support it,” the Leader said.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the fate of the region will be decided by the resistance forces, with Hezbollah at the head of them.
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