Safa says Hezbollah will regain strength, come back stronger than it was

An emotional Wafiq Safa appeared Monday evening on pro-Hezbollah al-Mayadeen, saying with tears in his eyes "we are human and we are attached to our leaders," as he described slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as a humble, kind and loving person.

Head of Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit Safa, like many other Hezbollah leaders, was targeted in October in Israeli airstrikes on buildings in Beirut. The strikes killed 22 people and wounded 117 others, but Safa appeared unscathed Monday, and claimed that his assassination attempt was more American than Israeli. "The U.S. has asked Israel to kill me," he said.

Safa talked about his relation with Nasrallah, a prominent figure in Hezbollah who led the group for 32 years and was killed last September in an Israeli strike.

Nasrallah expanded Hezbollah's military capabilities and regional influence. He organized the group, loved the Lebanese people, and was keen on Lebanon and civil peace, Safa said. He added that Nasrallah had called him after the pagers attack to ask about his son who was injured by the explosion.

Safa vowed that Hezbollah will regain its strength and will come back stronger than it was, and that the so-called axis of resistance has not been defeated, except for the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

He said Hezbollah is still present in Lebanon and that the U.S. administration has always been trying and is still trying to meet with any Hezbollah official instead of mediators.

The interview was aired hours ahead of a deadline to fully implement a truce with Israel. Under the truce deal, the Israeli army was to withdraw from south Lebanon. On Tuesday morning, residents of south Lebanon villages started to return to their border villages as Israeli troops withdrew yet remained at five "strategic" locations inside Lebanon.

A ministerial statement said Monday the Lebanese state should be the sole bearer of arms and that only the state will have the right to liberate all Lebanese territories, in a thinly veiled message on Hezbollah's arsenal.

"We will leave it to the state," Safa said, when asked about the Israeli violations and occupation, but he added that Hezbollah will later declare its position on the issue.