"It was the United States military that killed them, and it will pay the price." Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned on Sunday (January 5th) that the US military was "going to pay the price" for killing Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and a senior Iraqi commander in a strike in Iraq on Friday.
The US military targeted
"The just punishment (will target, note) the American military presence in the region," he warned. "American military bases, military ships, every officer and soldier in the area."
The head of Hezbollah warned that we should not attack "American citizens", that is to say "American businessmen, engineers, journalists and doctors" in the region.
"The battle, the confrontation, the just punishment, it is for those who executed (the operation) and it was the American army which carried out the murder and the assassination" of General Soleimani and Abu Mehdi al-Mouhandis, the Iranian man in Iraq and number two in Hashd al-Chaabi, said Hassan Nasrallah.
"When the coffins of American soldiers and officers (...) begin to return to the United States, (US President Donald) Trump and his administration will understand that they have lost the region," he added.
Appeal to Iraq to free itself from the occupation
The speech of Hassan Nasrallah, broadcast on giant screens in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, was regularly interrupted by the slogans of his supporters, which notably chanted "Death to America".
"If it is not adopted in Parliament (...), what I know about the Iraqis, the factions of the Iraqi resistance, is that the resistance fighters (...) will not leave a single American soldier in Iraq, "he said.
Hezbollah generally uses the term "resistance" to refer to the movement and its allies, Iran and Syria at the head, in their struggle against Israel and the military presence of the United States in the region, which it denounces as an imperialist power.
Shortly after the Shiite leader's speech, the Iraqi parliament called on the government to "end the presence of foreign troops" in Iraq in a special session broadcast exceptionally live on state television.
The least that can be done "to respond to the assassination of Qassem Soleimani is to get the US forces out of Iraq and free Iraq from the occupation," said Hassan Nasrallah in his speech.
Iran directly participated in the creation of Hezbollah and their strategic alliance has been maintained for decades. It is illustrated today by their common commitment in Syria, where they provide crucial military support to the power of Bashar al-Assad.
An architect of Iran's military strategy in the Middle East, Qassem Soleimani was head of the al-Quds Force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards responsible for external operations.
With AFP
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