BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Lebanon’s
Hezbollah resistance movement says its enemies are instructed by the U.S. embassy, which he said is conspiring to target the Lebanese resistance and render it defenseless.
“Hezbollah enemies gather at the U.S. embassy, take orders to target the resistance, and work to disarm it,” Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, said late Monday.
Some parties in Lebanon are plotting to sabotage the Lebanese resistance, with Hezbollah on top of their target list, he told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network.
Qassem touched on violent October 17 protests in Lebanon, saying the U.S. embassy tried to use them to achieve its goals.
Protests took place in Lebanon on October 17, 2019 over planned taxes on gasoline, tobacco, and VoIP calls on applications such as WhatsApp. The protests further expanded into a country-wide condemnation of economic stagnation, unemployment, and articulation of concerns over social justice and economic inequality.
Qassem further said Lebanon’s parliamentary election will be held on time on May 15, adding that there is no reason to postpone it as sought by the U.S.
The U.S. embassy, Qassem said, has concluded that the upcoming election will “neither turn the table nor change the existing state of affairs.”
A day earlier, the secretary-general of the Hezbollah resistance movement warned of a slide towards violence in Lebanon as it is grappling with a major economic crisis after at least seven people, including a child, died as a boat carrying dozens of migrants sank in the eastern Mediterranean.
“We must not allow anyone to take the country to strife, and this incident must be addressed at the national level,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said during a speech in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Sunday evening.
He made the remarks on the occasion of Laylat al-Qadr or the Night of Destiny – a holy night during the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan in which the first verses of the Holy Qur’an were revealed to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) some 14 centuries ago.
“All of the elements of the investigation are known and hurrying up in the probe is the least duty that one can do,” the Hezbollah leader added.
Nasrallah also called on the government to “stand by the victims’ families.”
“The army’s naval forces managed to rescue 48 people and retrieve the body of a dead girl … from a boat that sank while trying to illegally smuggle them out,” the army said in a statement.
“Most people on board were rescued,” the army said, without specifying their nationalities.
Last week, Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, a member and deputy head of the executive council of Hezbollah, censured the United States and Saudi Arabia for intervening in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections.
Those who allied with the Zionist regime in the 1982 Lebanon War are now waiting for an opportunity to “stab the resistance in the back” with financial support and encouragement from foreign embassies, Qaouk said, according to a report by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV.
“They are on the same side with Israel and share the same goal. Nothing has changed, they have not learned their lessons,” he added.