Nasrallah says Lebanon's deal with Israel 'not normalization'
Hezbollah will end an "exceptional" mobilization against Israel after threatening to attack for months, its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday after Lebanon and Israel struck a maritime border deal.
"All the exceptional and special measures and mobilization carried out by the resistance for several months are now declared over," Nasrallah said in a televised speech, calling the agreement a "very big victory for Lebanon and its state, people and resistance."
"Our mission is complete," Nasrallah said, adding that the deal "is not an international treaty and it is not a recognition of Israel."
"Israel received no security guarantees," the Hezbollah leader stressed.
Responding to domestic criticism of the deal in Lebanon, Nasrallah said: "It seems that some in the country have been shocked and surprised and they are voicing incomprehensible words."
On July 2, Israel said it had downed three drones launched by Hezbollah that were headed towards the border offshore field of Karish which was partly claimed by Lebanon.
Nasrallah had warned Israel against reaching for the reserves before a deal was finalized.
The agreement between the countries, which are still technically at war, was applauded by world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden.
It was signed separately on Thursday by Lebanon's President Michel Aoun in Beirut and by Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Jerusalem, and went into effect after the papers were delivered to mediators.
Earlier in the day Lapid had claimed that the deal meant Lebanon de facto "recognizes the State of Israel, in a written agreement."
Aoun had retorted that the deal had no "political implications."
The United States-mediated deal is set to unlock potential off-shore gas resources for Lebanon, at a time when the country is reeling from three years of grueling economic crisis.
It also streamlines gas production for Israel, as Hezbollah had threatened it with attacks should it begin work in the disputed area before a deal was signed.
-
27 October 2022, 16:49
Nasrallah: What happened in Naoura is not normalization with Israel and Israel received no security guarantees.
-
27 October 2022, 16:46
Nasrallah: What happened today proves that all the talk about normalization is baseless.
-
27 October 2022, 16:46
Nasrallah on border deal: It seems that some in the country have been shocked and surprised and they are voicing incomprehensible words.
-
27 October 2022, 16:44
Nasrallah: We in Hezbollah consider what happened a very big victory for Lebanon.
-
27 October 2022, 16:43
Nasrallah on sea border deal: The mission of the resistance has ended and the military mobilization has come to an end.
"The mission of the resistance has ended and the military mobilization has come to an end."
Does this mean that Hizballah is going to finally carry out its 2006 promise and disband itself? I very much doubt it.
All he said is BS! When silence can be deafening, cowardness beyond limits, an echo of cruel indifference and heartlessness, a requiem for civility and intellectual vitality, a sign of a dying society and poisoned childhood beyond hope or mercy… this describes the status of Lebanese Shia. They evolved from being the most democratic Shia community in the world to the mortal enemy of Lebanon’s freedom, democracy and prosperity. Arm worshipers who prefer ballistic missiles to feeding hungry children. How can last week 80,000 Iranians demonstrate in Berlin, and tens of thousands demonstrate in Toronto, Ottawa, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Stockholm, Athens while Lebanese Shia remain silent looking with indifference to Basij brutality. Every Iranian protestor has more courage and pride than all Lebanese Shia combined that have become the joke of history. Wake up!
Beyond all the BS broken record, the facts remain that the biggest enemy to Lebanon's democracy, freedom, sovereignty, justice and prosperity is not Israel but Hizbollah which is nothing that Iran's foreign Legion. Hizbollah has been created, funded, indoctrinated and armed by Iranian Basij radicals, and therefore by definition a foreign agent and anyone aligning with it is committing treason. Let us just remember that economic woes started by Hizb causing the exodus of all good paying western firms, isolating Lebanon, and drying all long-term investments due to political risks. Growth went from 7% in 2006 to negative after its war for arm keep. Keep in mind this is a criminal organization with Hariri assassination alone killed 22 and injured hundreds, not to mention Tueni, Jemayel and dozen others.