Hezbollah Chief Warns of Plots to Plunge Lebanon Into Strife

Date: 25 April 2022 - 21:42

News ID: ۱۰۱۹۸۸

BEIRUT (Dispatches) – The

secretary-general of the Hezbollah resistance movement has 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.

The latest incident stoked public anger in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second city and one of its poorest.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been mired in a deep financial crisis that has caused the Lebanese pound to lose around 90 percent of its value to the U.S. dollar and led its banking system to collapse, plunging the bulk of Lebanese into poverty.

The economic and financial crisis is mostly linked to the sanctions that the United States and its allies have imposed on Lebanon as well as foreign intervention in the Arab nation’s domestic affairs.

The United Nations refugee agency says at least 1,570 people, 186 of them Lebanese, left or tried to leave by sea from Lebanon between January and November 2021.

Hezbollah expressed its condolences over the Tripoli boat tragedy and described the disaster as a manifestation of Lebanon’s financial and economic crisis caused by decades of flawed policies, neglect of public demands, and deprivation of people’s rights.

Hezbollah termed the incident a wake-up call, calling on senior Lebanese officials and all political parties to collaborate and maintain social solidarity in order to cope with the repercussions of the ordeal.

Zionists Shell Southern Lebanon

The warning by the Hezbollah leader came before the Zionist regime targeted an area in southern Lebanon with heavy artillery fire.

According to Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network, the regime’s military struck an area between “Majdal Zone and the town of Zibqine” early Monday.

Some sources said the occupying regime fired as many as 23 artillery shells towards Lebanon during the assault.

The regime and Lebanon are technically at war due to the former’s 1967-present occupation of the country’s Shebaa Farms.

The occupying regime launched two wars against Lebanon in the 2000s. In both cases, it was forced to retreat after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement.