The Hezbollah movement will remain involved in the Syrian conflict till the very end and will achieve victory against the United States and Israel, the party leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stated.
“I have always promised you a victory and now I pledge to you a new one in Syria,” Nasrallah said on Saturday, on the 13th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.
Syria is a crucial ally for Hezbollah and the “backbone” of the resistance, the party leader said as cited by Naharnet. “If Syria falls in the hands of the Takfiris and the US, the resistance will become under a siege and Israel will enter Lebanon.”
“If Syria falls, the Palestinian cause will be lost,” he added.
Some neighboring countries are ready to do everything, including the full destruction of Syria, in order to depose current regime, but Syria “has true friends in the region” as well, and they will not allow Syria to “fall into the hands of the United States and Israel,” Nasrallah said.
Thousands of Hezbollah fighters went to battle for Syria willingly and “aspire to take part in the resistance.”
“You will find tens of thousands of fighters that are ready to take all fronts and participate in the battles,” he assured. “No one is forced into the war.”
But in the end, political dialogue is the only way to reach reform in Syria, which is required as the current government “has its positives and negatives,” Nasrallah believes.
“Several suggestions and settlements that were accepted by the Syrian regime were rejected by regional countries because they do not want Assad's regime to stay in power.” While part of the Syrian opposition “has a vision and is ready for dialogue” others work “under the Pentagon’s orders” and reject any suggestion of peace talks, he noted.
“The events in the last couple of years have proved that there is an axis lead by the United States while the rest are working under its orders. Everyone knows this axis is supported by Israel while al-Qaida and other Takfiri organizations from around the world were paid to take part in it,” Nasrallah explained.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Thursday that 104 Hezbollah members have been killed in Syria since last autumn although Hezbollah denies this, saying that only 57 have been killed since the start of the war. Hezbollah had initially denied the involvement of its fighters in Syria but he has admitted they were there since a televised address last month where Nasrallah paid homage to them.
Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition talks in Istanbul have so far failed to unite liberal leaders and Islamists of the opposition Syrian National Council, who demand President Assad and his government’s resignation before they will come to the negotiating table.
During the meeting Syrian National Council president George Sabra criticized Hezbollah’s involvement in the conflict.
“Some of the Lebanese people are being sent as invaders, they are being sent to kill Syrians. And we are sending them back in coffins,” Sabra said. “Syria used to be a safe haven for them whenever they faced a crisis. We say to those who were once in the resistance: ‘You are heading to the wrong direction’”.
The Friends of Syria gathering declared it is seeking a political solution to the Syrian crisis welcoming the Russian-American initiative to conduct a peace conference between the government and all factions of the opposition. However in a joint declaration, the group’s member states maintained that Syrian President Bashar Assad should play no role in the country's future.