“We have overcome four phases [Resolution 1559, sponsored by France and the United States, imposing the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon; the French temptation, i.e. Jacques Chirac’s offer of power in exchange for disarmament; Israel’s July War, backed by the United States, against Lebanon in 2006; the 5 May 2008 decision of the Lebanese government, prodded by the United States, to attempt to disable Hezbollah’s communication network], and now we are in the fifth phase [the Special Tribunal for Lebanon] of the process of targeting the resistance in Lebanon.” — Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah is Secretary General of Hezbollah. This speech was delivered on 11 November 2010. Cf. “[A]nyone who has followed the investigation of Hariri’s murder over the last five years will remember being flooded with leaks, analysis and evidence which supposedly established the culpability of the Syrian regime with absolute certainty. We all read books, articles, op-eds, blog posts and official reports placing Syria’s responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt. And then suddenly ‘new information’ — which most people in the region understood to be conveniently discovered in a new political climate — led the STL [Special Tribunal for Lebanon] to stop pursuing the Syrians and shift to Hezbollah. The Arab media has not failed to notice. What are we to make of its really quite shocking reversal? Why should we consider the evidence now pointing to Hezbollah credible given the seeming collapse of the supposedly iron-clad case against Syria? . . . [I]t really does look an awful lot like the STL is being used as a political weapon against Hezbollah at a time of mounting fears of its power and of allegedly rising Iranian influence in Lebanon” (Marc Lynch, “The Zombie Tribunal for Lebanon,” Foreign Policy, 8 November 2010). See, also, “Nasrallah: No vamos a permitir la detención de nuestros luchadores” (TeleSur, 11 November 2010); and
“نصر الله: سنقطع يد من يتعرّض لمجاهدينا“
(Al-Akhbar, 12 November 2010).
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