AFP
Beirut


The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement yesterday urged broad support for his group’s fight in Syria, saying it was engaged in an existential battle against the Islamic State group.
Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged for the first time that his powerful Shia group was fighting across all of Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
And he called specifically on his fiercest critics in Lebanon to back his intervention across the border, warning that their support for Assad’s opponents would not save them from jihadists.
“Today we are facing a kind of danger that is unprecedented in history, which targets humanity itself,” Nasrallah said, speaking ahead of today’s anniversary of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in 2000.
“This is not a threat to the resistance in Lebanon or to one sect or to the regime in Syria or the government in Iraq or a group in Yemen,” he added, addressing an audience in the southern town of Nabatiyeh in a telecast broadcast on a big screen.
“This is a danger to everyone. No one should bury their heads in the sand.
“We invite everyone in Lebanon and the region to take responsibility and confront this danger and end their silence and hesitation and neutrality.”
Nasrallah dismissed the US-led coalition fighting against IS, saying the militants continued to move freely despite its air strikes.
He directed much of his speech to members of Lebanon’s Future movement, which is fiercely opposed to Hezbollah and its role in Syria, warning they would be the “first victims of IS and Al Nusra” if they arrive in Lebanon.
He also acknowledged for the first time that Hezbollah was fighting throughout Syria, and not just in areas near the border with Lebanon.
“We are fighting alongside our Syrian brothers, alongside the army and the people and the popular resistance in Damascus and Aleppo and Deir al-Zor and Qusayr and Hasakeh and Idlib,” he said.