Nasrallah Tells March 14 Not to Await Hariri's Return via Damascus Airport as 'Battle in Syria is Far from Over'
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday called on the rival March 14 forces not to await the return of former prime minister Saad Hariri to Lebanon “via the Damascus airport,” saying they must instead end their boycott and take part in drafting a new electoral law.
“Do not await the return of certain figures via the Damascus airport,” said Nasrallah in a televised address during an academic graduation ceremony organized by Hizbullah.
“I want to draw your attention to the fact that you are making wrong calculations” concerning the Syrian crisis, Nasrallah added, addressing the March 14 camp.
“You are boycotting (any meeting attended by the government) and preventing the adoption of a new electoral law,” Hizbullah's leader said, noting that March 14 are betting that “within one or two days, within one or two months, the Syrian regime will fall.”
Nasrallah said reports about an imminent fall of the Syrian regime “are not new.”
“From the very first day, some princes, kings and presidents and their followers in the March 14 camp said that the regime will fall in two months,” he added.
“They put one deadline after the other, but two years passed and nothing happened. If you're betting on certain information, your information is wrong. Let any just person open Syria's map and see the areas held by the regime and the opposition and decide whether the regime will fall or not,” Nasrallah went on to say.
He called on the March 14 forces to “give up their wrong assumptions and reconsider their boycott decision and not to worsen the tensions in the country.”
“Let them take part in drafting a new electoral law and the outcome of elections will decide the shape of the government and this is the interest of the country,” he added.
“The boycott was aimed at toppling the government, but it was not toppled and it will not be toppled by further boycotting, not because we're clinging to it but rather because all international and national circumstances indicate this. Boycott is inflicting losses on the country and this insistence will put us before two choices: the 1960 law or no elections and both choices are bad.”
Nasrallah said “whoever thinks that the (Syrian) opposition is capable of winning militarily is very delusional.”
He noted that “the battle is not at all between the regime and its people.”
“There is a division. A segment of the population supports the regime and another supports the opposition which has taken up arms and is being aided by regional forces and there is an armed confrontation,” Nasrallah said, describing the situation in war-torn Syria.
Commenting on the latest deadly bombings that targeted regions in Damascus and its suburbs, Nasrallah asked: “Are the residents of Qatana Syrians or foreigners? Are the residents of Jaramana Syrians or foreigners? Are the residents of Damascus Syrians or foreigners so that you send them booby-trapped cars at 8:00 a.m. when the streets are packed with people?”
Addressing the regional and international supporters of the Syrian opposition, Nasrallah added: “This is the peak of viciousness. Where is your stance on the Syrian people who are being killed by the opposition? Where is your moral stance on those whose throats are being slit, on those who are being thrown from the roofs of buildings and on those who are being killed because of their religious identity?”
Nasrallah pointed out that “the battle is far from over in Syria because the armed opposition is rejecting any dialogue with the regime, which will bring further violence and bloodshed.”
He said “there are countries that do not care about Syria, even if people there kept fighting each other for 10 years and some regional forces are benefiting from the conflict.”
Addressing al-Qaida, Nasrallah added: “The Americans and Europeans have set a trap for you in Syria and some Arab governments have set a trap for you in Syria and gave you an arena to flock to from all over the world so that you kill each other and you have fallen prey to this ambush.”
“Should these groups achieve anything, they will be the first to pay the price in Syria because there is a trap set up for them,” Hizbullah's chief said.
“On the humanitarian level, our hearts are severely grieving for the death of every child in Syria. Anyone preventing dialogue is the criminal who bears the responsibility for the killing of every person in Syria,” he announced.
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