Alwaght- It is impossible for somebody to remember the wars of 2000 and 2006 between the Israeli regime and Lebanon but not the fiery speeches of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah when he, "confident of victory", foresaw beating the heavily armed enemy based on a "divine promise" amid the daily bombing of Lebanese cities and the people's disbelief. The Israeli regime that for decades had promoted the legend of its invincibility was described by the brave leader of Hezbollah as "weaker than spider web."
Nasrallah's promise for defeat of the Israeli army came true for several times during the past 15 years. Besides, the political and social crises in the occupied territories that cause despair to form a sustainable Israeli cabinet reveal to all the shaky pillars holding the Israeli regime.
It is perhaps because of these promises that the Israelis always put the positions and threats of the leader of Hezbollah in the center of attention even more than the Lebanese themselves did, to an extent that with the smallest warning by him, they retreat from their positions. The gas dispute between Lebanon and the Israeli regime is a clear latest example of such a situation.
The Lebanese celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hezbollah foundation as Nasrallah's speeches contain promise of continuation of the victories and hopes for brighter future for the country and Hezbollah transformation into a powerful and influential regional actor. These victories were inaccessible without sacrifices of the Lebanese resistance represented by Hezbollah over the past forty years. Now strong and deep-rooted, Hezbollah not only protects national security and interests but also provides a bulwark for the regional security and stability against the Israeli expansionism, the American plots, and their pawns.
Both Nasrallah's speeches that suggest Hezbollah's foundation is not a result of a conference but field occurrences and the movement's performance over the past four decades show that it is main pillar of the regional resistance that has a pivotal role in various operational areas in addition to being at the forefront of confrontation of the Israeli regime. Standing by the Syrian government and people in the devastating war against a large international army of foreign-backed terrorists, assisting Iraqis in their war against ISIS, taking a central position in the Axis of Resistance's confrontation of Tel Aviv, supporting the Palestinian resistance, and more are indications of Hezbollah's centrality on the fronts.
To understand this centrality, we can refer to a story by Hezbollah's chief who in 2019 talked about the first days of formation of the Iraqi resistance forces against ISIS, also called Daesh in Arabic.
"Resistance against Daesh began. After a few days, Haj Qassem [Soleimani of Iran's IRGC] came to Lebanon and met me. He asked us to send about 120 Hezbollah members to Iraq to command the operations. He said that we don't need fighters because there are many fighters in Iraq, but we need operation commanders in different regions. We also sent many of our brothers to Iraq. The borders between Iran and Iraq were opened so that weapons could be supplied on the border areas and the battle against Daesh began."
From another aspect, we can understand from his hope in the future and more victories and synergy of resistance forces from Syria and Palestine to Yemen and Bahrain that there is a gap between the present achievements and the ideal conditions envisioned by Hezbollah for Lebanon, the regional states, and Muslim world. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's words ensure that although there is a lot of work and responsibility ahead, both the mental and emotional motivations to advance to ideal peaks of victory are observable among the resistance forces and there is adequate potentials to realize it. Meanwhile, the constant hostilities and conspiracies of the enemies of Hezbollah, especially the Israelis, not only did not cause a disruption in the path of Hezbollah's journey to its ideals, but also created stability and additional motivation in the leaders of the resistance.
In recent years, the plots of Hezbollah's enemies focused on an investment on the Lebanese home developments to undermine Hezbollah and crush its public legitimacy bases. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's non-sectarian approach and putting first the Lebanese interests in its agenda and marking national security as a red line are highly attractive to the public— something indicating that as Hezbollah is a powerful actor regionally, it is the top actor internally.
