Nasrallah Urges Arabs to Supply Gaza with Arms, Use Oil to Press U.S., EU
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday called on the Arab countries to supply battered Gaza with weapons and use the factor of oil to pressure the U.S. and Europe into ending their support for Israel.
“The aggression started with the assassination of a major jihadist leader and several people were martyred or wounded amid a strong defiance by the resistance,” said Nasrallah in a televised address marking the first day of the Shiite Ashoura religious ceremonies.
“We extend our condolences to Hamas Movement on the death of commander (Ahmed) Jaabari and we offer our condolences to the Palestinian people. We strongly condemn the aggression and all the freedom advocates in the world must stand by Gaza, the resistance and the jihadist fighters,” Nasrallah stressed.
He said that the “main bet” is on “the will of the people in Gaza and the will of the resistance.”
“The reason for confidence is that there is a resistance movement in Gaza that has a level of wisdom, courage and steadfastness that makes it qualified for engaging in a confrontation at this high, dangerous and decisive level,” Hizbullah's leader added.
He noted that the firing on Wednesday and Thursday of Iranian-made Fajr 5 rockets at the Tel Aviv area “highlights the wisdom and courage of the current resistance in Gaza.”
Two more Gazans died as Israel pressed on with a major bombing campaign across Gaza on Thursday, raising the death toll to 15, and Palestinian fighters fired more than 250 rockets over the border, with two of them hitting the Tel Aviv area.
A rocket hit the sea just south of Tel Aviv, an Agence France Presse correspondent at the scene said, the farthest that a rocket from Gaza had ever landed inside Israel.
The attack sparked panic in Tel Aviv, with television images showing people lying on the ground outside the defense ministry, their hands over their heads as sirens wailed.
Earlier on Thursday, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck Rishon LeTzion, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) southeast of Tel Aviv, the Israeli army said, but there were no injuries or damage.
“It is an episode of the episodes of the bloody, historic and decisive confrontations that will decide the fate of Palestine and the holy sites. It is one of the stages that require everyone to shoulder their responsibilities,” said Nasrallah.
“We have noticed that this enemy does not need an excuse to wage war and aggression. If the enemy's government has a political interest in war it will wage it, like it did during the 1996 Grapes of Wrath Operation when (then Israeli prime minister Shimon) Peres waged a war on Lebanon ahead of the Israeli elections,” Nasrallah noted.
“The Israelis do not need a Palestinian action in order to make a reaction and I remind the Lebanese, the Arabs and the governments in the region of this,” he want on to say.
Lashing out at the U.S., France and Britain, Nasrallah said “the blood of Gaza's children has exposed the reality of the American, French and British stances on the region.”
“This proves that they're not concerned with values or human rights, but rather with their own interests,” added Nasrallah.
He called on the Arab and Muslim countries to “cooperate in order to enable the jihadist (Gaza) Strip to achieve victory and foil the Israeli plans.”
“Western countries can definitely pressure Israel. We always hear remarks about the 'weapon of oil' and Arabs know that there are certain countries in Europe that would collapse if the price of oil rises and the same can be said about the U.S.,” said Nasrallah.
“Slash production or raise the prices,” Hizbullah's leader suggested, addressing the oil-producing Arab countries.
Commenting on remarks voiced by some Arab leaders that “what's happening in Gaza is aimed at diverting attention from what's happening in Syria,” Nasrallah said “these remarks are laughable because the Israeli objectives are clear.”
“The right thing to say is that Israel benefited very well from what's happening in Syria in order to wage a war on Gaza,” Hizbullah's leader noted.
Source: Naharnet
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