Speech by Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, on May 24, 2024, in tribute to the victims of the Iranian President’s helicopter crash.

Most of this speech was devoted to recalling the achievements of Ebrahim Raissi and Prime Minister Amir Abdollahian, and to reaffirming Iran’s stability and its unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and the Axis of Resistance, at both institutional and grassroots level. Iranians’ attachment to the Islamic Republic was demonstrated by the scale of the state funeral, attended by millions of people: along with the funeral of martyr Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and Ayatollah Khomeini’s in 1989, it was one of the largest funeral in human history. We are only translating the last part of the speech, devoted to the situation in Gaza.

Source: Al-Manar

Translation: Resistance News

The last part of my speech will be devoted to the latest developments in the Al-Aqsa Flood, and the battle in which we are taking part, and for which we are offering martyrs. I send my condolences to the families of the martyrs who have fallen in recent days, asking God to grant the highest degrees to the martyrs, patience and comfort to their loved ones, and healing to the wounded, on all the battlefields.

We are now in the eighth month. The Israelis themselves, regardless of the (worthless) opinions of some, the Israelis themselves recognise, whether they are in power or the opposition, because some people sometimes say: ‘You’re quoting what people in the opposition are saying’, but the recognition is unanimous among both those in power and the opposition. They all agree that what the Zionist entity has experienced and is experiencing these months and this year is unprecedented since [its creation] 76 years ago. And this is, of course, one of the great achievements of the Al-Aqsa Flood (launched on October 7) and what followed it.

Previously, it was always the Zionist entity that created suffering and pain and inflicted tactical and strategic losses on the fronts: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Palestine itself in 1948, with the exception of the 1973 war, which redressed the balance somewhat. But today, the enemy talks about its losses, its pain, its suffering, its critical situation, the difficulties it faces, the threat to its existence. And all this is true. All this is true. Israel is not just whining to make us feel sorry for it. Of course, it lies about things like the murder of children and the rape of women, and so on. In any case, these days, every day, the international media and others deny the Israeli allegations about what happened on October 7, but the enemy acknowledges the serious suffering it is facing, and recognises its powerlessness and failure.

A few days ago, statements were published, and not by the opposition, because if it came from Lapid or Lieberman, for example, you could say that they are waiting for (the fall of) Netanyahu. We are obliged to mention these hateful names. No, these are not statements by the opposition, but by the head of the National Security Council, who is one of Netanyahu’s most loyal supporters, and who always sits to his right if you watch him on television. At a briefing in the Knesset before the Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, he said: ‘In the north (i.e. against Hezbollah), there are no objectives, no strategy, no clarity, and we understand nothing of anything. At the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to. As for Gaza, we have not yet managed to achieve any of our stated objectives. We have not succeeded in eliminating Hamas, we have not succeeded in recovering the prisoners, and we have not succeeded in disarming Gaza’. This is the head of the National Security Council saying this after eight months of war. It’s not me, nor you, nor anyone from the Palestinian resistance faction who is saying it, so people might say we’re exaggerating. No, it is Israel that recognises this reality, despite all the calamities they have caused in Gaza and the calamities they have caused us in the border region, but these are not victories, these are not achievements: they have nothing to do with the political project, the future, security, national security, strategy, etc.

Today, for example, we are seeing a number of salient points, some of which we have already mentioned. For example, today, one of the most worrying things for Israel, both for Netanyahu’s faction in power and for the opposition, who have been in mourning over this for the last few days, is the subject of the recognition of the State of Palestine by certain European countries. There are many countries that have recognised the State of Palestine, but most of them are Asian countries, African countries and Latin American countries. The fact that European countries have recognised the State of Palestine was a wake-up call, and that’s why you saw the harsh and severe reaction from Israel, which summoned the ambassadors to reprimand them, and recalled their ambassadors for consultations and so on, and this will open the door for other European countries to recognise the Palestinian State, which is rejected by both the opposition and the loyalists of the enemy entity, not just Netanyahu: Netanyahu, Lapid, Gallant, Benny Gantz, and all the others, because they all look alike and they see a Palestinian state, regardless of its borders, size and capacities, as an existential threat to that entity, because it is essentially an artificial entity, an entity that is not viable, an [illegitimate] entity [doomed to disappear]. The question of recognising the Palestinian state has put them in mourning. Why should this be? Because it is a strategic loss. Because before the Al-Aqsa Flood, the world had forgotten Palestine, the Palestinian State and the rights of the Palestinians, as we have mentioned on several occasions. And this recognition perpetuates the Israeli mourning, which had already been caused by the vote of the United Nations General Assembly: 143 countries around the world support the full membership of the State of Palestine in the United Nations. As usual, the satanic US administration confronts this option and declares: ‘We do not recognise a Palestinian state, and such recognition threatens peace and threatens the political solution. The Palestinian state can only be established through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.’ They claim that the Palestinian state will be established through negotiations with the very people who loudly proclaim, day and night, that they reject the very idea of a Palestinian state. And Biden comes along and mocks the world, claiming that the Palestinian state will be born of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

Today, this growing recognition in the world of a Palestinian state is one of the results of the Al-Aqsa Flood and of what came after the Al-Aqsa Flood. All that I am going to mention now are the results of the Al-Aqsa Flood and of what came after the Al-Aqsa Flood, namely the Resistance, the specific historic operation of October 7, the steadfastness of the people of Gaza and of the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank, the steadfastness of the Resistance, the courage of the Resistance, the political solidity of the leadership of the Palestinian factions, and so on. Without all this, my brothers and sisters, if this Resistance had surrendered, been defeated, submitted or knelt down, the whole world would have recognised Netanyahu’s victory and congratulated him, with many Arab and Muslim countries in the front line, who would not have recited the sura Al-Fatihah over the souls of the Palestinian martyrs, and would not have wept for the children and women of Palestine. None of this would have happened if the Resistance had been defeated in the first weeks or months of the war. These are the results of firmness, the results of resistance, the results of steadfastness: the world is changing (in favour of Palestine).

The second point is the international courts. I don’t want to go into the details of the verdict of the Prosecutor of the criminal court, who equates the executioner with the victim back to back [by asking for arrest warrants against both Israeli and Hamas leaders]. Quite apart from that, the very fact that the International Criminal Court… Who would have imagined that the day would come when prosecutions or arrest warrants would be issued against Netanyahu and Gallant? Who would have thought that such a day would come? Regardless of the injustice that has befallen the Hamas leaders. These are the results of the Al-Aqsa Flood: steadfastness, patience, resilience, the greatest scandal in the world [which is this live genocide], and all the efforts, media and popular, demonstrations, university students etc., etc., etc.

Israel is now before the International Criminal Court and has been unmasked. Whatever happens, one of the results of the Al-Aqsa Flood that His Eminence Imam Khamenei spoke of is that the West has been unmasked, the whole of Western civilisation, the whole of the Western camp. Would you like an example of these scandals? Karim Khan himself, the criminal prosecutor, what did he say to CNN? He said that senior leaders called him and said ‘What are you doing? This International Criminal Court was created for Africa’. I don’t know what the exact translation is, I don’t know exactly what he said in English, but he said that the ICC was reserved for ‘thugs like Putin’, he mentioned Putin by name. This is a scandal for the international community, Western civilisation and the Western camp. That these international courts were only created to judge the poor (countries) in Africa.

Israel is today before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. All those who speak of Israel as respectful of the international community and international resolutions, when Israel has never respected a single international resolution… Today, the Court of Justice in The Hague has taken a decision, of course, which is not sufficient. The law required a resolution demanding that the enemy immediately cease the war on Gaza, but in any case, they took the decision to demand that the enemy stop the war on Rafah. What did the enemy do? The most violent air strikes on Rafah began after the announcement of the decision of the International Court of Justice. This is Israel.

It is clear that the reactions of Netanyahu, Ben Gvir and Smotrich, and others [were very virulent]. The question of the Palestinian state is therefore a strategic loss. Today, the entity and its leaders are before the international courts. Israel is also more discredited than ever in international public opinion. We should also mention the (unprecedented) student movement in solidarity with Palestine: we must thank all the university teachers and students in America, France, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, Canada, everywhere in the world. What motivates them? Human feelings! Human feelings! Despite the fact that these people have been brainwashed by the Western media for decades, when these videos [of the genocide in Gaza] arrived on social networks, these human feelings, this human nature, were shaken to the core. It doesn’t matter if the victim belongs to the same religion, the same race or the same homeland. We are all human beings. There are people in the world, in the western world, in our region, and even here in Lebanon, who want to erect borders (between people). For some, the Lebanese borders of 10,452 square kilometres are not just geographical borders for a country. They want to make them borders for morality, borders for human feelings, borders for humanitarian solidarity. And so, for these people, the question of Gaza deserves no more than a few words. These people who demonstrate in the universities of the world, these men, women, children, young men and women, like yesterday, in Congress, in front of Blinken, who dye their hands red and confront him (to denounce the complicity of the United States in the genocide in Gaza), and who are beaten up and expelled, but who continue to shout and demand an end to the war on Gaza, this humanity, these human feelings and this primordial human nature, it is the Al-Aqsa Flood that has awakened them, that has aroused them in every region of the world. This is unprecedented in decades.

(The third point) is Israeli failure, confusion in failure, confusion, failure and powerlessness. There are people whose job it is to make us afraid of Israel, to make Gaza afraid of Israel. But what more can Israel do in Gaza than it has already done? And they want to scare Lebanon. Let Israel get out of the quagmire in Gaza first! Some Lebanese who don’t read the Israeli statements (say these things), so I want to read them some of their statements. When, in Israel, they started talking and threatening Lebanon with all-out war, even in recent weeks. Lieberman, who is a former Defence Minister, replied to Ben Gvir and Smotrich when they said that Lebanon and southern Lebanon should be invaded and a security belt established south of the Litani River. This is what he said to them: ‘Habibi (my dear), Khabibi [Nasrallah imitates the Hebrew accent], with what army, with what soldiers, with what fighters do you want to go south of the Litani? Are you finished in Gaza?’ This is a former Defence Minister speaking, not a political analyst.

To underline Israel’s failure and powerlessness, I’m going to highlight one of its recent aspects. In the last few days, Netanyahu has clearly disavowed the security services and the military establishment, exposing them at the heart of the battle. Where else in history has a leader acted in this way? The army with which he is fighting, the security services with which he is fighting, yesterday he disowned them and exposed their back. He declared: ‘It’s absolutely not true and it’s a lie that they told me there was a threat from Gaza, on the contrary. They were giving me different, opposing assessments that Hamas had been deterred and that there was no danger from Gaza.’ Of course, Lapid replied: ‘That’s a lie. It is Netanyahu who is lying. When I was prime minister and when he was prime minister, they presented us with estimates that there was a threat from Gaza.’ Netanyahu is like Iblis (Satan) when he disowns all his supporters, because what’s important is that he protects his head. This is one of the forms of weakness in enemy leaders, of impotence, failure and confusion.

Today, hundreds of families of soldiers fighting in Gaza are collecting signatures to demand an end to the war. Thousands of university professors and elites are launching petitions and collecting signatures to demand an end to the war in Gaza. In opinion polls, day after day, support for the war in Gaza is falling. Confidence in the victory in Gaza is waning, and this will worsen with time. Praise be to God, there have been major achievements in recent weeks, whether on the Gaza front or the Lebanon front, the Yemen front or the Iraq front. This will of course increase the pressure on Netanyahu and the enemy government. So, yes, if he wants to carry on like this, as I said in the last speech, he is heading for the precipice, for disaster, for a dead end. It’s not just me who’s saying this, but many of the political leaders and generals of the enemy entity. But praise be to God who has made our enemies stupid, so that the results of this torrent of bloodshed of children, women, resistance fighters and mujahideen in Gaza, Lebanon and the region will be greater and greater. We hope that the war will end as soon as possible, but if Netanyahu insists on continuing the war, he is leading this entity to disaster and bringing the opposing front to a great historic victory.

During Netanyahu’s last visit to the north, he uttered a series of sentences with which I will conclude the speech, quoting and commenting on them. He reassured the northern group and the soldiers in the north, i.e. those facing us on the Lebanese front, and he also spoke to the divisional commanders, telling them: ‘We have detailed and important plans, and even some surprises.’ Look at this (self-proclaimed) master of psychological warfare: he’s telling us to watch out, Hezbollah, the Lebanese, the people of Lebanon and the Resistance in Lebanon in all your factions, this Netanyahu has surprise plans! Netanyahu continues: ‘But I’m not telling the enemy about these plans, which are designed to achieve two things: the first is to restore security in the north, and the second is to get the inhabitants back to their homes in safety. We are determined to achieve these two objectives together.’So he claims to have detailed, important and surprising plans. He also adds: ‘Ultimately, I am not going to disclose to Hezbollah what we intend to do, because I am not revealing to our sworn enemy our timetable, nor the means by which we are going to achieve these objectives. With deception, we create peace and security, but also war, and we are committed to restoring security and will do so.’

Here are my comments on the surprises he promises us: well, since October 7, you, the Zionist entity, the most powerful army in the region, and the most powerful security services in the region, with most of the security services in the region at your service, and faced with Gaza under siege, Gaza has surprised you, Hamas has surprised you along with the resistance factions, and what surprise? The whole Gaza division has collapsed, and so far they don’t know whether that brigade commander Hamas mentioned yesterday is alive or dead. They are completely lost. A whole division collapsed, the walls collapsed, the technology collapsed, the elite army collapsed on October 7 with the Gaza surprise. That was the first surprise.

Secondly, the Resistance in Lebanon surprised you on October 8. I read the Israeli media (daily), and all the Israeli media were saying that it was impossible for Hezbollah to take the initiative one day because the situation in Lebanon is difficult, the economic situation and the living situation are difficult, Hezbollah’s popular base and the Lebanese people would not put up with it, and so it is impossible for Hezbollah to take the initiative to open the front. But the Resistance in Lebanon surprised you by opening the front.

And Yemen surprised you: did Netanyahu, the enemy government and their American masters imagine (for a second) that this beleaguered Yemen, emerging from eight or nine years of war, could enter the battle with such strength, courage and resilience, and defy the whole world? Yemen is defying the world by striking these ships and preventing them from reaching the ports of occupied Palestine. And Iraq surprised you. At the end of the day, in Iraq, the American forces are present, there is a state and a regime, and there is no room for manoeuvre for the Resistance.

Similarly, when you bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, the Islamic Republic of Iran surprised you with its drones, missiles and Operation Sincere Promise. Aren’t these all surprises? We’re the ones who have the right to talk about surprises, and speaking of surprises, the time when we sat back and made threats is over. Now, if I said to Netanyahu ‘No, no, don’t talk about surprises, you should expect surprises from our Resistance’, I wouldn’t be exaggerating.

See From October 7 to April 14: the era of Liberation has begun

But I would like to say to Netanyahu, to Galant and to the enemy government: here, on the Lebanese front, within the Resistance in Lebanon, we have studied and calculated all the hypotheses, all the scenarios you can resort to, all the measures you can take, and all your deceptions (and we are prepared). We were not born yesterday. We have been engaged in a battle against you for at least 41 years. We will not be fooled by your deception, any more than we will be influenced by the pressures of your masters in the world: they will have no effect and you will derive no benefit from them. This resistance will continue. In all honesty, we are engaged on this front, and we have been clear from day one: we are engaged in support of Gaza and the Gaza Resistance. We’re not here for ostentation, we’re not embellishing, we’re not deceiving or anything like that. We know that some people in Lebanon may not appreciate this speech, and we knew from the outset that there are Lebanese who will not tolerate this position and this decision and these statements, but we have always been clear, frank and transparent. When we go into battle, we go with clear objectives, clear slogans, clear discourse and clear practice. We do not hide, and one of the reasons is our belief in the truth of this battle, and one of the reasons is that this battle will have martyrs, and we do not hide our martyrs and are not ashamed of our martyrs. That’s why, from day one, we said that this was a battle for Gaza. Of course, we set a second objective, a second objective rather than a first objective, which was to prevent any pre-emptive operation by the enemy against Lebanon, because he was thinking about it. As early as October 7, the enemy was thinking of launching an operation against Lebanon, and this was said later during the discussion that took place within the enemy government. That was the second objective. Thirdly, having engaged in this battle, we must seek results, it must bear fruits at national level, as regards Lebanese national security, the restoration of occupied land and the preservation of sovereignty, and this front, God willing, will continue.

We and you are a march that has belonged to the martyrs since the beginning of history. We continue on our way. We have in our hands enormous achievements in this battle, from the Day of Resistance and Liberation on 25 May 2000, to the war of July 2006, to the current battle. We have an enormous amount of sacrifices and an enormous amount of achievements. We must remain faithful to the sacrifices and maintain the achievements, which requires firmness, resilience, continuity, certainty and trust in Almighty God, who gives us victory, helps us, guides us and strengthens our steps. ‘And if God helps you, no one will be able to defeat you.’ [Quran]

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for coming and taking part in this ceremony. We renew our condolences and sympathy [to the Iranian people & leaders] in this painful incident. We ask Almighty God for mercy and high rank (for the martyrs), as well as patience, comfort and a great reward for their families.

May God’s peace be upon you, as well as His mercy and blessings.

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