Nasrallah: I want your sympathy

Hizbullah leader lashed out at the "government of Walid Jumblatt" and warned that he will use weapons to defend his weapons. The militia leader described yesterday's actions as "self defense" and "fighting an American plan", saying it was not a coup and that he rejected Sunni-Shia discord.

Now Lebanon is covering it here. Excerpts follow:

Nasrallah: I said, before Jumblatt, that any hand that reaches for the resistance and its arms will be cut off. Israel tried that in the July War, and we cut its hand off.
Nasrallah: We do not advise you to try us.
Nasrallah: Whoever is going to target us will be targeted by us. Whoever is going to shoot at us will be shot by us.
Nasrallah: Let's look into who is really harming the people and stealing their money. Unfortunately, this is the government. Jumblatt acknowledges this openly on TV.
Nasrallah: Jumblatt is a liar and a killer. He sits up there and draws red lines, and the martyrs and people who defended Lebanon will be handed over to the courts. This is not a government, this is a gang.
..
Nasrallah: When they made their decisions, they created the current crisis. We are in a new phase. Am I declaring war? Not at all. I am declaring oppression and self-defense.
Nasrallah: We will not be killed in the streets. We will not be shot at. We will not accept for our resistance and military to be targeted.
Nasrallah: I want to tell the Lebanese people... and the Arab and Islamic people... that we did not see this emotion and enthusiasm when Israel destroyed 100,000 homes and the country's infrastructure.
Nasrallah: If the fight were over the government, we would have had a regular protest. We are not fighting for that. All this talk of power and coups has no value. The point is that there is a team serving the US to do what the US and Israel failed to do, and that is strip us of the resistance's arms.
Nasrallah: We do not need anyone's help. I am not asking for anything but understanding. I am asking for the sympathy of the Arab people. I tell you, we are not afraid of Sunni-Shia sedition. We are not going to use arms. End of story.
Nasrallah: The issue is that there is an American plan that we are fighting against. This is the nature of the crisis. There is no need for fear.
Nasrallah: Sectarian sedition is out of the question, and we will not use our arms to take power by force. It will only be used to defend our arms.
Nasrallah: After the July War, we were exposed to a billion-dollar smearing campaign. "Hezbollah is Iranian, Hezbollah is Syrian..."
Nasrallah: Our image was not smeared, however, for our image is as bright as the sun and cannot be damaged.
Nasrallah: Even if we disagree politically, we are brothers... There will be no Sunni-Shia strife in Lebanon.
Nasrallah: This is our description of the current phase, which was created by Jumblatt's government and the government of Condoleezza Rice.
Nasrallah: There are two options. In the one hand, we have the chance to go to Speaker Berri's dialogue table. On the other hand - and I've said this inside Hezbollah - we would never take over the government, even if we were invited to so, for we cannot build the country alone.
Nasrallah: We do not want to attack anyone or start a revolution.
Nasrallah: If we wanted to stage a coup, you would have woken up this morning in prison, or in the middle of the sea. We do not want that. It is a political issue, with a political solution through early elections.
Nasrallah: To exit this crisis, the illegitimate government's decisions must be revoked and we must head for dialogue.
Nasrallah: Obstinacy will have another solution.

Comments

[RebLeb]

Keep talking, I am reloading...

[Doha]

AK,

Nasrallah doesn't want to coin it as a Shiite-Sunni discord, but that between those who support a Lebanese state (them, Hizbullah) and those who are a band of thieves (3isaba) following a US-Zionist plan. It's just the same, but he's using different names for the groups. Not very smart.

By the way, Nassir Al-Ass'ad in Al-Mustaqbal wrote that there were no pro-Syrian supporters among the Hizbullah street thugs and no Aoun supporters as well. He added that Hizbullah is an unenviable position right now as Syria is toying around with the prospect of a peace settlement with Israel. Is Hizbullah isolated?

[Umm K.]

He's starting to sound rather desperate! He's looking for "sympathy"? What a crock.

[fed up lebo]

why dont they call his bluff?/ go on Tv and demand a referendum for the whole country with a simple question. SHOULD HIZBOLLAH HAVE WEAPONS YES OR NO?.

Then lets see what the lebanese people want. if 51 % say they want weapons fine let him keep them. if no then he is made to shut the hell up.

this has gone too far now and it has to come to an end one way or the other.

[Bad Vilbel]

Bleh.

[Vox P.]

Another interesting question is: does the army have weapons (or balls). Is it true that dar el fatwa is being attacked or is it just rumors?

[Doha]

The Army has weapons but they're not taking sides. They can't without orders to engage and if they engage without orders, the Army will simply split into factions. Nasrallah already addressed the Army indirectly in his speech by saying that Choukair is a nationalist member of the Army and the order to fire him is against all nationalists in the Army.

Voix du Liban said that dar el fatwa has been attacked. The Cabinet is meeting this evening and Saad Hariri will be speaking in a live press conference.

[Charlie]

Another outlaw making more outrageous demands.
At least we all know where everyone stands in this conflict.
Each community has to make the simple choice of either they are with the state or with their own mini-state. Most issues in the world are not black and white, but this one for sure is.

The Lebanese state is far from being mature or removed from the secular nonsense, but one thing we know for sure is HA’s way NOT the way for a continuous improvement of the system.

The Lebanese government must proceed in facing HA, they can not be concerned with fracturing the Army. This is a civil war, and all civil wars in the past, no matter where they happened essentially resulted in a fragmentation of the national army. If an officer or an army commander sees his loyalties are to Nassrallah, then might as well go and join HA in this fight, no need for the government to appease them.

[Bad Vilbel]

Exactly Charlie,

There really is no point in having an army if (1) You can't use it and (2) There are members of it that aren't loyal to the state. Let them split. They don't belong there anyway.

As i said yesterday, civil war in 3, 2, 1...

Well, actually today it's 2, 1, 0...

[L]

Please help a confused Israeli: Hizballah speaks of itself as the "resistance", presumably resistance to the Israeli occupation of Lebanon. But that occupation has ended a few years ago. So what is it that they are "resisting" now?

[marillionlb]

It seems that the army has decided to turn a blind eye. Escalation of fighting everywhere, and the army retreats.
And Michel Suleiman is what M14 want for president. TFEH!
my fellow Lebanese take up arms an protect your homes and your country from Hizbollah and their allies, for no one else is willing to protect you !