Nasrallah Rejects 'Isolation' of Any Party, Says Hizbullah Backs State in Israel Wall Row
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday warned against any attempt to “isolate” or “defeat” any Lebanese party, as he threw his support behind the Lebanese state and army in the face of an Israeli plan to build a controversial border wall.
“It is not right to isolate or defeat anyone in this country and this country cannot be governed through majorities or minorities,” said Nasrallah in a televised address.
“This country can only continue through dialogue, integration and coexistence, not through elimination and marginalization,” Nasrallah added.
His remarks come amid an unprecedented spat between President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri over a disputed decree.
Nasrallah also said he does not believe that any of the political forces wants to delay the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Turning to Israel's plan to build a border wall which Lebanon says would go through 13 disputed border areas, Nasrallah said: “The resistance stands by the army and the state in the rejection of any Israeli measures on the border. I tell the Israelis to take the Lebanese state's warnings in a very serious manner.”
Separately, Nasrallah said U.S. claims accusing Hizbullah of drug trade are “baseless allegations” aimed at “tarnishing Hizbullah's reputation.”
“Hizbullah has a very clear religious and moral stance: drug trade is impermissible in Islam and prohibited,” he underlined.
“Even selling drugs to enemy societies such as the Israeli society is impermissible in Islam and this is our absolute commitment,” Nasrallah explained.
He added: “Hizbullah does not even have a commercial project or an investment project. Hizbullah has not authorized anyone to run investment projects under its name. The issue of drugs is part of the war on us.”
The U.S. Justice Department had last week announced the creation of a special task force to investigate what it called "narcoterrorism" by Hizbullah.
U.S. authorities said the creation of the Hizbullah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team was also a response to allegations that former president Barack Obama held back from cracking down on alleged Hizbullah global networks in order to achieve the nuclear deal with Iran.
Separately, Nasrallah said a U.S. pledge to keep American troops in Syria to defeat the Islamic State group was just a "flimsy excuse" to occupy the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that U.S. forces would remain in Syria to both fight IS and counter the influence of President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad is a key ally of the Iranian-backed Hizbullah, which has deployed its forces to keep the Damascus regime in power.
"The Americans are the last people to have anything to do with rolling back Daesh," Nasrallah said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
The U.S., according to Hizbullah's leader, was "creating flimsy excuses to keep their forces and bases in the region. This is the real aim."
The United States has deployed around 2,000 ground troops to Syria and its warplanes patrol the skies over the east of the country, hunting IS remnants.
Source: Naharnet
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