Nasrallah, 63, led Hezbollah during the second half of Israel’s occupation of Lebanon, which officially lasted 15 years in the late 20th century.
Although not technically a public official in Lebanon, Nasrallah is one of the country’s most important political figures. Hezbollah and its allies lost a majority in the 2022 legislative elections, but still hold the largest share of seats, at a time of economic crisis and widespread discontent.
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Nasrallah is known for his long, bombastic speeches and pronounced lisp. His supporters call him “The Sayyed” or “Abu Hadi” – Arabic for Hadi’s father, his son killed in clashes with Israeli troops in 1997.
One of his most triumphant moments came during the month-long war that Hezbollah militants and Israel fought in 2006. Three days after the conflict began, he spoke on Al -Manar of Hezbollah and said the surprises he had promised were about to begin. . Then an Israeli warship was targeted.
“Watch it burn,” he said.
Walid Phares, a political commentator of Lebanese origin, told the Council on Overseas Relations in 2010 that Nasrallah was seen by some in Lebanon as a “messianic figure.”
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In a 2006 dispatch from Lebanon, analyst and author Robin Wright, then Washington Put up journalist who visited Nasrallah in Beirut, wrote that his face was displayed there on computer screensavers, posters and key chains. “The taxis are playing his speeches instead of the music,” Wright reported.
What are his opinions?
One of Hezbollah’s key objectives, according to its 1985 manifesto, is the destruction of Israel. Under Nasrallah, Hezbollah continued to engage in skirmishes with Israel.
Although Hamas is Sunni and Hezbollah Shiite, and the two militant groups disagree over other conflicts in the region, they have recently found common ground in opposing Israel; destroying Israel is also a stated goal of Hamas. Both groups have been classified as terrorist organizations by the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Both receive support from Iran, experts and officials say.
The Israeli occupation of Lebanon appears to have been decisive in Nasrallah’s motivations. He told Wright in 2006 that he and his peers had witnessed “what happened in Palestine, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, in the Golan.” [Heights]in Sinai.
This taught him that in Lebanon, “we cannot count on the states of the Arab League, nor on the United Nations,” he said. “The only way we have is to take up arms and fight the occupying forces.”
What did Nasrallah say about the war between Israel and Gaza?
Since the start of the war on October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire near the Israel-Lebanon border. Initially, both events remained within decades-old rules of engagement. However, over time, attacks from both sides became more sophisticated, penetrating deeper into each other’s territory. The latest Israeli strikes against Lebanon constitute a dramatic escalation of the status quo.
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In his first public remarks on the war between Israel and Gaza, Nasrallah said that Hezbollah and other Hamas allies were unaware of plans for the October 7 attack, but that Hamas had “no ‘other choice’ than attacking Israel. “The other choice,” he said, “would have been silence and death.”
In his speech, Nasrallah boasted that Hezbollah’s “daily and targeted” strikes against Israel were distracting and weakening it in its fight against Hamas. He warned Israel against any “aggression or preemptive strike” against Lebanon, which he said would be “the greatest idiocy in your history.”
Hezbollah’s fighting with Israel on the border, he said, “constitutes a source of solidarity and support for Gaza.”
This approach evolves based on developments in Gaza, he said, adding that “all options are on the table and we could adopt them at any time.”
Facing nearly a year of international ceasefire efforts, Nasrallah asserted in his public speeches – filmed from an unknown bunker – that he would continue the fight against Israel until there was a ceasefire in Gaza.
Le Washington Put up
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