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Hassan Nasrallah

Nasrallah: Netanyahu leading Israel to ‘death and destruction’

Speaking during Ashoura holiday marked by rallies, prayers and self-flagellation, terror group leader Hassan Nasrallah warns Netanyahu is leading his people to 'death and destruction'; accusing Israel and US of conspiring to derail Iranian nuclear deal and start regional war, Nasrallah warns Israel not to embark on 'stupid war.'

The leader of the Shiite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah warned Israel against pushing the region into war on Sunday as supporters and other Shiite Muslims marked the Ashoura holiday with rallies, prayers, and self-flagellation.

 

 

Hassan Nasrallah told observers in a televised speech that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was working with US President Donald Trump's administration to undermine the Iran nuclear deal and start a regional war. He warned Israel not to underestimate Hezbollah's capabilities.

 

"The current Israeli government, presided over by Netanyahu is leading its people to death and destruction," he warned. "I can confirm that they do not have an accurate idea of what is waiting for them if they embark on this stupid war."

 

It was his final sermon to the customary ten days of speeches addressing religious and political matters that lead up to Ashoura.

 

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah

 

The somber holiday marks the killing of Islam's Prophet Muhammad's grandson, the Imam Hussein, by a rival Muslim faction in Karbala, present day Iraq, in 680 A.D. Hussein and his descendants are seen by Shiites as the rightful heirs to the prophet; his death is attributed with cementing the schism between Shiite and Sunni Islam.

 

Thousands of families attended Hezbollah's main rally under fair skies in south Beirut, waving richly colored banners to commemorate Hussein's martyrdom. Children were adorned with the customary green and yellow ribbons that mark Hezbollah rallies. Posters picturing the leader of the terror group Nasrallah and Iranian Ayatollahs Ali Khamenei and Ruhollah Khomeini featured prominently in the march.

 

But when Nasrallah did not appear at the rally in person—he usually speaks by video link, for his own security—attendees began to stream out, some carrying with them their posters of the secretary general and of relatives killed fighting in the civil war in neighboring Syria.

 

Under Nasrallah's leadership, more than a thousand fighters, including some of Hezbollah's most decorated veterans, have been killed fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad. Hezbollah's participation has cost it some of its more diffuse, cross-sectarian support in Lebanon and further polarized a country already riven with political divisions.

 

Hezbollah forces on the Lebanese-Syrian border (Photo: AFP)
Hezbollah forces on the Lebanese-Syrian border (Photo: AFP)

 

Men and women at mosques in central Nabatiyeh offered their brows to receive a razor's nick and tapped their foreheads to keep the wounds from closing.

 

A girl of about five was seen hitting her head with a saber, as men slapped the pavement around her with swords and chanted a nickname for the Imam Ali, the father of Hussein.

 

Blood soaked through their white attire and trickled down the streets.

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.01.17, 22:35
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