Nasrallah: No military solution in Syria, only political
In speech, Hezbollah chief slams supporters of Syrian rebels – namely Saudi kingdom – claims only political solution will work, hinting support of Geneva 2 conference. 'The truth is that the result of the Syrian revolution is failure,' Nasrallah concludes
The speech was given in an event marking 25 years since the foundation of the Al Rasul Al Azam Hospital in Beirut, which is owned by Hezbollah, and it seemed to give the Geneva 2 Conference expected later this month a positive nod from the radical Shiite group.
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"Lebanon and all the region’s countries must push towards a political solution in Syria," Nasrallah said.
"But there is one country, ... the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and it is still very angry over the prospects of a political solution in Syria. The fighting side did all it can to target the regime and bring it down but failed to reach any results,” he said, taking a swipe at the Saudi Arabia which has been the most active of Arab nations in funding Syrian rebels.
"The stubborness and insistence on (a military solution) will only lead to further fighting, casualties and destruction as well as repercussions on neighboring countries,” Nasrallah said, hinting that the Saudi Kingdom and Syrian rebel forces, and not Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah fighters assisting him, are behind the prolonged civil war.
"The Syrian army has advanced on the field in Syria and armed groups have started to divide. There will be no military solution in Syria, the acceptable and available solution is political and the way to reach that is through dialogue with no preset conditions.
"Saudi Arabia is angry with the way things are going in Syria and is seeking to disrupt and postpone the Geneva 2 conference. Disrupting the political solution in Syria means more destruction, more victims, more killing," Nasrallah said.
"The truth is that the result of the Syrian (revolution) is failure," he dramatically concluded.
Of course, Nasrallah favorite target, Israel, was not forgotten. "We want to return our abductees to Lebanon to prove to the world that we are a country that respects itself. Some of these issues should be resolved in collaboration with Syria, others are in Israel. We have thousands of detained Lebanese citizens in Israel."
According to the Hezbollah chief, "there are 17,000 missing because of the Israeli occupation, of which four are Iranian diplomats."
On Monday, the al-Arabiya network reported that 15 Hezbollah fighters were killed and eight others wounded in battles on Damascus' suburbs. The group aids the Syrian army in the fight against the rebels.
Meanwhile, the it was reported that the Syrian army bombed several rebel strongholds in the Alkamon Mount area, near Lebanon. According to the Saudi newspaper al-Watan, Hezbollah has recently recruited 15,000 fighters for the mountain campaign.
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