Khabarni – The American magazine Newsweek reported that the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, disappointed the Palestinians and their supporters yesterday, Friday, by making his first long-awaited public statements since the Islamic resistance movement “Hamas” attacked Israel on the seventh of last October.
The magazine said – in a report written by its editor, Jason Lemon – that Nasrallah remained conspicuously absent from the public eye during the escalating tensions, while low-level officials in his party addressed the press and rallies supporters.
Previous escalation expectations
He added that when he announced last week that Nasrallah would finally speak to the public, many expected him to announce additional measures or a major escalation, but instead he simply described Hezbollah’s current “participation” in the conflict, saying that his group he joined the war. On October 8 he repeated the warnings issued by second-tier members of his party to the United States and Israel, also called for a ceasefire in Gaza and reiterated Hezbollah’s support for Hamas and the Palestinian people.
Lemon said Lebanese, Palestinians and many others across the Middle East were eagerly awaiting the speech, and some speculated that Nasrallah would announce that Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups would declare all-out war on Israel. Instead, Hezbollah’s leader indicated that the current level of engagement will continue unless Israel takes steps to step up.
The author cited a US State Department spokesperson who told Newsweek that the US administration was aware of Nasrallah’s speech and was not seeking to escalate or expand the conflict.
The American spokesperson added: “We and our partners have been clear: Hezbollah and other actors – governmental and non-governmental – must not seek to profit from the ongoing conflict,” warning that the attacks could “become a bloodier war between Israel and Lebanon”. compared to 2006.”
Hezbollah’s capabilities
The author also quoted Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official who also served as an Arab affairs advisor to the mayors of Jerusalem, who said that Hezbollah’s position and strategy confirm that his group will continue as it has done since the beginning of the war against Gaza, and which would not expand the conflict and fully activate the second front.
Melamed stressed that what Nasrallah said that his group was participating in the war was not convincing “because what we saw is far from Hezbollah’s full military capabilities.”