Nasrallah Hails Aoun's Border Op Decision, Says 'Golden Equation' Vital Even if Army Gets Stronger
Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday hailed President Michel Aoun over the Lebanese state's decision to launch Operation Dawn of the Outskirts, as he noted that the controversial “army-people-resistance equation” will remain needed even if the army gets stronger.
“The state's decision to launch Operation Dawn of the Outskirts was a very significant development and represented a form of practicing a sovereign political decision,” Nasrallah told via video link a Hizbullah rally in Baalbek celebrating what Nasrallah has dubbed Lebanon's “Second Liberation Day”.
“This is one of the achievements of the new presidential term represented by President Michel Aoun, the man whom I always described as a brave, independent leader who does not bow or submit to any state, embassy, pressures or intimidation,” Nasrallah added.
“When the victory was achieved in Arsal's outskirts (against al-Nusra Front militants), the Americans told the Lebanese that they were dismayed, and when the Lebanese state decided that the gallant Lebanese army should liberate the rest of the Lebanese land, the Americans once again asked Lebanese officials not to carry out this military operation, threatening to halt aid to the Lebanese army,” Nasrallah explained.
He pointed out that Aoun “preserved the state's prestige through taking a sovereign Lebanese decision to launch the border operation” against the Islamic State group in the outskirts of the eastern border towns of al-Qaa and Ras Baalbek.
Praising the Lebanese army's ouster of IS militants from the area, Nasrallah said the army and its command “did a great job that should be lauded.”
“Political confidence in the Lebanese army's ability to perform significant operations must be boosted... Strengthening the Lebanese army has long been our demand and it reinforces Lebanon's ability to face all threats,” Nasrallah noted.
But he pointed out that strengthening the army “does not render the army-people-resistance golden equation useless, but rather reinforces it.”
“No matter how much the army gets stronger and the Resistance gets stronger, we will always need more strength when we speak of Israel's ambitions. Speaker Nabih Berri has warned that they are seeking to steal our water, oil, gas and borders,” Nasrallah warned.
Turning to the controversial ceasefire agreement that involved the evacuation of dozens of IS militants from the Lebanon-Syria border region to eastern Syria, Nasrallah -- who has lived in hiding for a decade -- said he had traveled to Damascus to seek the Syrian president's approval of the deal.
"I personally went to Damascus" to see President Bashar al-Assad, Nasrallah revealed, noting that the Syrian leader accepted to be "embarrassed" by the deal for the sake of Lebanon and the case of its IS-held troops.
Hundreds of IS fighters and and their families were evacuated Monday from the border region between Lebanon and Syria under the ceasefire deal that followed separate but simultaneous offensives by the Lebanese army and Hizbullah and the Syrian army on both sides of the border.
In return, the IS group gave Hizbullah coordinates that helped Lebanese authorities recover the bodies of nine Lebanese troops abducted by the jihadists in 2014 and eventually killed while Hizbullah was handed over a captive fighter, the bodies of five slain members and the corpse of an Iranian soldier.
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