BEIRUT: Shia militants from Hezbollah will keep fighting in Syria’s civil war alongside President Bashar Al Assad’s forces as long as necessary, the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said yesterday.
Hezbollah has helped turn the tide in Assad’s favour this year, leading the recapture of the town of Qusair and fighting alongside his forces south of Damascus and in the northern city of Aleppo.
“As long as the reasons (to fight in Syria) remain, our presence there will remain,” Nasrallah said in a speech in front of tens of thousands of Lebanese Shias marking the religious ceremony of Ashoura in southern Beirut.
“Our fighters are present on Syrian soil...to confront all the dangers it faces from the international, regional and takfiri attack on this country and region,” Nasrallah said, referring to the foreign Islamist rebels fighting in Syria.
Referring to the political stalemate in Lebanon, Nasrallah said any attempt by Hezbollah’s Sunni-led political opponents to link a deal for a new cabinet with demands for its withdrawal from Syria would be futile.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigned in March but his designated successor has failed to reach consensus on forming a new government.
Hezbollah, a political movement as well as a militant group, had two ministers in Mikati’s government.
“Anyone who speaks of Hezbollah’s withdrawal from Syria as a condition to form a new government...is imposing a crippling condition,” he said, and the organisation would not bargain the region’s future “for a few useless cabinet portfolios”.
His comments yesterday marked his second public appearance in 24 hours, after a speech on Wednesday evening when he accused some Arab countries of standing alongside Israel in opposing attempts to reach an international agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme.
“What is the alternative to an understanding between Iran and the countries of the world? The alternative is war in the region,” Nasrallah said on Wednesday night.
REUTERS
