Alwaght- Lebanese Hezbollah rejected an offer of financial support by the US in exchange for turning its back on Palestine and ending confrontation with the occupying Israeli regime, the resistance movement's leader said on Tuesday.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in an interview with al-Alam, said the Americans tried to negotiate with Hezbollah many times over the past years, both before and after 2000, through various channels.
There were discussions between Hezbollah and Washington via intermediaries, but the resistance group announced that there is no need for negotiations as the United States is an enemy, he added.
"Previously, they (the Americans) sent us a delegation on behalf of Dick Cheney to negotiate a halt in our support for Palestine and attacks against Israel. In return, they said that they would pay us billions of dollars and even allow us to have our weapons, an offer which we naturally opposed.”
Lebanon fought off two Israeli wars in 2000 and 2006. On both occasions, battleground contribution by Hezbollah proved an indispensable asset, forcing the Israeli military into a retreat.
Lebanon and the occupying entity are technically at war since the latter has kept the Arab country’s Shebaa Farms under occupation since 1967.
Elsewhere in his comments, Nasrallah said, “We do not recognize the existence of Israel. This is the land of Palestine.”
He also expressed Hezbollah’s opposition to any attempt by the Lebanese government to normalize ties or cooperate with the Israeli enemy.
The main objective of the normalization of ties with Tel Aviv is to make the Palestinian people frustrated so that they would finally relinquish their rights, the Hezbollah chief noted.
He further warned the equation that an encroachment on al-Quds means an encroachment on the resistance axis is still in place.
Additionally, he asserted that Hezbollah does not interfere in the affairs of the UAE and Saudi Arabia or any other country and that it has no problem with Lebanon's dialogue with Arab states.
'US looting Syria’s resources'
Nasrallah said that the United States does not negotiate with terrorists, but always cooperates with them.
The US is present in the east of the Euphrates River to plunder Syrian oil and gas, he emphasized. The war on Syria ended without achieving its goals.
“Some of the targets being bombed in Syria are affiliated with Hezbollah… But, we have set an equation... If any of us is killed, they must wait for our response… Well, in the attacks now, they are very careful so that no one is killed,” he explained.
Iraqi parliament’s decision to expel Americans ‘decisive’
Also in his interview, the Hezbollah secretary general hailed as “decisive” the Iraqi parliament’s decision on the US withdrawal from the Arab country.
Baghdad, he said, witnessed large protests demanding the pullout of American troops from Iraq following the martyrdom of Iran’s top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi ternchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, outside Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
Bahrainis ‘still committed to ideals, principles’
Nasrallah said that what happens in Bahrain is, in fact, a severe repression, the arrest of clerics, the revocation of people’s citizenship and a request for help from foreigners.
However, he added, the Bahraini nation still keep adhering to their ideals and principles.
