BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Syed Hassan Nasrallah, who made a rare public appearance Friday at a rally in the southern suburbs of Lebanese capital, dismissed claims of Shia expansion in the region as a ploy to divert attention from Israel and warned that the idea was serving to fuel sectarian strife in the Muslim world.
In an event held in the Hezbollah-controlled Dahieh quarter of Lebanon’s capital to mark the International Al-Quds day, Nasrallah declared that “Palestine must return to its rightful owners.”
“No king, president, sheikh, state or country has the right to give up even one clod of Palestinian land, one drop of water or oil from Palestine.”
Nasrallah continued and said that Ayatollah Khomeini’s definition of Israel as a “cancerous growth” was accurate: “As you know, tumors spreads, and the only solution for this tumor is to uproot it.”
Nasrallah added; “Israel poses a critical threat not only to Palestine, but to all the world.” According to him, Israel threatens Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, and they hope for its disappearance.
“Those who stand against the Zionist project defend Palestine and his children and grandchildren’s future,” he added.
Nasrallah said in his speech that the Israeli-Arab conflict and the struggle against the “Zionist enemy” must be the top priority, and that “if it was so from the start, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
The speech by Nasrallah, public enemy number one for Israel, marked a rare public appearance for Hezbollah’s leader, who usually makes speeches remotely for security reasons. His last public speech was in September 2012.
Nasrallah also held responsible parties financing Takfiri groups fighting in different countries for the violence that came in their wake.
There are those in the Arab world backed by the U.S. who oppose prioritizing the demise of Israel and push nations toward another priority by inventing reasons for another war against what they call Shiite expansion, Nasrallah said.
They [Gulf countries] spend millions of their money and launch television channels to promote this [so-called] Shiite expansion, he added.
They invented a new enemy and convinced Arab countries that the Shia expansion is more dangerous than Israel and its Zionist project in the region, said Nasrallah, who described Israel as cancerous gland that needed to be excised.
First they spoke of the communist expansion and Palestine was forgotten and they spent billions for that purpose. Then they invented the threat of Iranian or Persian expansion and a war, that cost billions, was waged against Iran, mobilizing all their military capabilities against Iran.
“Money has been spent, and armies trained to fight Iran, not Israel, and every warship comes with a guarantee to the US not to use it against Israel. If one fifth of that effort was invested in Palestine, it would have been freed.”
They have now invented a new enemy calling it the Shia expansion, and their priority is confronting the Shia threat as if it poses a greater threat to the nation than the Zionist scheme, Sayyed Nasrallah said, warning that the sectarian strife was most destructive project in the region.
Nowadays, the sectarian incitement is being broadcast through satellite channels, websites and social networks against the Shi’ites, and those who are backing and funding this trend are same time backing some Shi’ites to carry out the same mission against Sunnis so that discord is strengthened. This language got sharpened after the Syrian crisis so that the Shiites abandon Sunni Palestinians.
Isnt it time for the Arab nations to recognize that there is someone attempting to destroy their countries, armies, heritage and people? Nasrallah asked, saying it was time for Arab states to name and shame countries backing such a spiteful plan.
Everyone who supports Takfiri groups militarily, financially, through the media and incites them to fight in battlefields is responsible for the destruction and bloodshed and is doing Israel a big favor, he said.
Nasrallah fired up the crowds and said: “They want Shias out of the equation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, meaning taking Iran out of the equation. Therefore, we say to the US, to Israel, the English, their accomplices and every enemy and friend today on Al-Quds Day, the last Friday of Ramadan, As Shia of Ali bin Abi Talib, we will never abandon Palestine, its people or its holy places.
“Call us infidels, call us terrorists, call us criminals, say what you want, try and kill us anywhere, target us any way you want, we are the Shia of Ali and we shall not abandon Palestine,” Nasrallah said to cheering Hezbollah supporters.
Earlier on Friday, on the Israel-Lebanese border dozens of protestors gathered, hoisting Hezbollah flags. On Thursday, Nasrallah’s men hitched a sign near the border ahead of Friday’s events with the Hebrew and Arabic inscription: “We’re coming.”
Next to the inscription in the sign – hoisted in a hill overlooking the events an image of the Al-Aqsa Mosque appeared.
Security was heightened in the southern Beirut suburb where Nasrallah spoke, with gunmen stationed at intersections leading to the hall where he delivered his address. Buses were parked across the streets to prevent access to all but pedestrians.
The precautions were not academic. A huge car bomb hit the same Beirut district a month ago, two blocks from where Nasrallah was speaking, wounding 53 people.
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