Nasrallah Says No Change in Ties with Iran after Nuclear Deal, Urges Mustaqbal to Listen to FPM's Demands
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stressed Saturday that newly issued sanctions by the U.S. against the party's officials were only aimed at targeting the Lebanese in general and that Iran's support for Hizbullah would not change following a nuclear deal with it.
“Sanctions on Hizbullah members don't make a difference because they neither have money nor have made deposits in banks worldwide,” Nasrallah said at the graduation ceremony of the sons and daughters of Hizbullah martyrs.
“We are proud to be sanctioned by the U.S. which will remain the great Satan after the nuclear deal with Iran,” he said from the Shahed Educational Complex in Beirut's southern suburbs.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on three Hizbullah leaders and a Lebanese businessman.
The action freezes the U.S. assets of all four and prevents Americans from engaging in transactions with them, it said.
But Nasrallah said that Lebanese businessmen and businesses are being targeted by the sanctions.
“The state and government have a responsibility in protecting the Lebanese but they are not doing so,” he stated.
“We are proud of Iran's financial and moral support to us,” he said in his first speech after the deal that was signed by the U.S. and five other world powers last week in Vienna.
“Since 1982 and since the launch of the resistance, there has been an effort by the U.S. and Israel through the cooperation of some Arab countries and some Lebanese tools to smash the resistance and if not possible to contain it and weaken it,” stated Nasrallah.
After the nuclear deal, Obama reiterated that Hizbullah is a terrorist organization and stressed that the U.S. policy is aimed at confronting Hizbullah to appease Israel, he said.
“There has been an objective to end the role of the resistance in Lebanon. But they have failed,” Nasrallah said.
He stressed Iran's ties with its allies are “dogmatic,” denying that Tehran would “sell” them after the deal with the major powers.
Following the nuclear agreement, “Iran's president and the rest of the officials have reiterated that the country's stances towards Hizbullah would not change,” said the party's secretary-general.
“Neither killing our leaders, our women and children would change our path nor our moral murder and sanctions would affect us,” he added.
Nasrallah also tackled in his speech, the waste management crisis which he described as “proof of a catastrophic failure.”
“Is there a transparent management which is willing to collect waste with the least cost?” he asked. “I don't think so.”
Uncollected trash has been piling up in the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon since last weekend when Lebanon's largest landfill that lies in the town of Naameh south of Beirut was shut down.
Nasrallah also urged his rivals to engage in dialogue with his allies in the Free Patriotic Movement to resolve the country's political crisis.
“The country will head towards vacuum,” he warned, saying al-Mustaqbal Movement should hold talks with the FPM to “listen to its demands.”
The FPM has been seeking a change in the government's decision-making mechanism after accusing Prime Minister Tammam Salam of infringing on the authorities of the president.
“We don't want the government to collapse,” said Nasrallah, adding that warnings about a possible resignation by Salam would lead to more vacuum.
Lebanon has been without a head of state since Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended in May last year.
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