International Shia News Agency

Mehrnews/ Nasrallah: ME crisis intended to ‘remap’ the region

SHAFAQNA (International Shia News Association) – Lebanon’s Hassan Nasrallah has said crisis in the region seeks to remap the whole Middle East.

Lebanese media covered Seyed Hassan Nasrallah’s visit in disguise to Hezbollah forces and his address to the annual meeting of religious missionaries just ahead of Hegira first month of Muharram (widely mourned by Shia Muslims).

Stories had it that Nasrallah visited camps with military uniform, which was quite a surprise for soldiers in the rank and file of the Hezbollah.

Nasrallah reportedly emphasized on the necessity of unity and avoidance of provocative action, and depicting a modern and clear face of Islam, in contrast to the violent and intolerant image projected by ISIL.

Nasrallah believed that ISIL was a tool in the hands of the US to extend its dominance in the region. “The US exploits the ISIL to challenge and intimidate countries in the region, and impose its hegemony to these countries especially in Syria and Iraq; Turkey would not join the international coalition against ISIL, unless its strategic interests are secured in a concrete way in the region,” said Nasrallah, asserting that ISIL survival in the region would benefit the US and Turkey the most.

He pointed to coalition’s airstrike against ISIL and believed that the strikes were only to ‘trim the nails of ISIL,’ to draw redlines for extremist group and to warn terrorists not to approach Jordan, Erbil and Saudi Arabia.

Nasrallah highlighted security challenges Lebanon now facing. “The security arrangement has now under control; however, even if there are some leaks in the security bulwark of country, it will not necessarily mean our failure and defeat; since even the strongest countries would not guarantee 100 per cent security,” he told the meeting.

Commenting on the most emergent issue of terrorism in Lebanese mountain regions in Boqa, Hezbollah Secretary-General believed that the fighting groups now in the region were too fragile to claim the region, since “they are pushed on the wall with only two choices of being destroyed by the cold weather or escape to Syria or Lebanon in disguise.”

Nasrallah said that Hezbollah fought in Syrian crisis for Lebanese security. “Today we are in the centre of resistance and axis of victory; when the enemy’s plots wane, it implies your position bolstered,” he said, however emphasized that the long war to the ultimate success would be continued.

He believed that the crisis to ouster Bashar al-Assad and destabilizing Iraq sought remapping of the whole Middle East. “Assad was not central to the crisis, and the conflict seeks to devise a new map of the region,” he added.

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