Nasrallah Says Jihadists Incapable of Invading Bekaa
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that jihadists located in Syria's Qalamun region and on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal in Lebanon are not able to enter the Bekaa Valley.
“We are fully prepared” for such a scenario, Nasrallah was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
According to al-Akhbar daily, he told visitors that Hizbullah should stay united. “If there had been any security breach, this does not mean that we failed.”
“The biggest countries in the world cannot claim that they are in full control of security,” the Hizbullah secretary-general said.
Last week, local dailies said that Nasrallah visited his party's fighters on the Lebanese-Syrian border dressed in military fatigues in a strong show of support.
Nasrallah met the fighters in their posts after he visited some families in the eastern Bekaa Valley to extend condolences to the party members who were killed in battles with extremist groups.
Hizbullah has sent fighters to Syria to back President Bashar Assad's forces against rebels trying to remove him from power. The armed intervention in Syria earned the Shiite group the enmity of Syria's predominantly Sunni rebels. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Over the past year, Syrian troops and Hizbullah fighters have captured most of the towns and villages in Syria's mountainous Qalamun region along the Lebanon border, depriving the rebels of residential areas where they can stay during the winter.
“As every day passes, we become more aware that our fighting in Syria is for the protection of Lebanon,” Nasrallah said, according to al-Akhbar.
“We have a golden opportunity to break the takfiri plan,” he added.
Hizbullah fighters have also clashed with jihadists, who infiltrated Lebanese territories.
Earlier this month, al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front, attacked positions manned by Hizbullah on the outskirts of Brital, killing several of its fighters.
There have been reports of other skirmishes between Hizbullah and militants along the Lebanon-Syria border.
Nasrallah described the battles in his remarks carried by al-Akhbar daily as a “minor mistake that has been resolved.”
He told his visitors that he walked on foot for several kilometers during his visit to Hizbullah fighters in their bases on the border with Syria.
“Our situation on the ground is very strong and our preparations are very advanced. Our plans are coherent and we are ready for any step they (the jihadists) take,” he said.
The militants “are incapable of invading any Bekaa region because they are trapped,” Nasrallah added.
The fighters from al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State have only two options – either to die from cold or leave in civilian clothing, he stressed.
The militants engaged in bloody clashes with the Lebanese army in Arsal last August. They took with them hostages from the military and police and later executed three of them.
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