Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has accused the US, Israel and some Arab states of stoking \"terrorism\" in Syria during a speech broadcast to thousands of his supporters in southern Beirut.
\"Who wants the destruction of Syria? America and Israel and some Arab countries,\" said Nasrallah, whose Shia movement is close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\'s government.
\"They want to destroy Syria because it is the main ally of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine.\"
Condemning deadly twin blasts that killed dozens and injured hundreds of people in Damascus on Thursday, Nasrallah criticised the Syrian opposition over its accusation that Assad’s forces were behind the attacks.
The explosions, the Hezbollah chief added, were proof that Syria risks descending into an abyss similar to Iraq.
\"The Syrian people are at a crossroads,\" Nasrallah said, adding that one path leads to \"reform\", and the other to \"destruction\".
Nasrallah spoke during an event in Beirut’s southern suburbs celebrating the reconstruction of the district which was mostly destroyed by aerial bombing in the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah TV channel Al-Manar said.
At least 1,200 Lebanese died during the 34-day war in the summer of 2006, most of them civilians, while around 160 Israelis died, the majority of them soldiers.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah has weapons that can accurately hit targets throughout Israel and that if a new war broke out, the group would destroy several targets in Israel for every building destroyed in Beirut.
The Hezbollah leader said that in 2006 his movement had been able to strike Tel Aviv, but wished to protect the city.
He added that Hezbollah \"is capable of striking very specific targets not only in Tel Aviv but everywhere in occupied Palestine\".
He said the Jewish state was entering the era of its doom.
Recalling the cost of reconstructing of thousands of war-destroyed buildings and houses in the southern suburbs, mainly with Iranian financial aid, Nasrallah said: “The hand that has rebuilt is on the trigger in order to impose a real equation: for every building destroyed in the southern suburbs, several buildings will be destroyed in Tel Aviv.”
“Today, we are capable not only of striking Tel Aviv, but of striking specific targets in Tel Aviv and anywhere in occupied Palestine,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd assembled in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood where Nasrallah once had his offices and residence in what was called the party’s “security complex” before the 2006 war. Nasrallah said the time has past when the Lebanese are displaced from their homes while the Israelis are not at risk.
“The era has come when we survive while they [Israelis] will be doomed to vanish,” he added.