Interview with Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah

Hit the link to read the full text of the interview with Hezbollah general secretary Nasrallah. His comments about press censorship in Israel are pretty interesting.

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14152.htm

 

Interview with Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah

 

By Al-Jazeera

July 22, 2006 - Al Jazeera in Arabic

Al-Jazeera interviews Hezbollah chief - Full text

Text of report by Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV on 20 July

Interview with Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah, by Al-Jazeera Beirut Bureau Chief Ghassan Bin-Jiddu, on 20 July. 

[Bin-Jiddu] It is sufficient to say that we are in the company of Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Al-Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah at this time in particular. The battles are still continuing. We are at a certain time in a certain place of this world, and not only in Lebanon, as I used to say earlier. This is why, without any introductions at all, I will start my questions to His Eminence Al-Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah. Your Eminence Al-Sayyid, first of all, thank you for responding to [the request to hold] this interview at this time in particular. Around 10 days have passed since the outbreak of hostilities. What do you say militarily and politically?

[Nasrallah] In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Politically and militarily all at once, it is difficult. Let us start...

[Bin-Jiddu, interrupting] Not in detail. We will go into details with you.

[Nasrallah] Let us start militarily and in the field. The general headline we can speak about clearly on the military level is steadfastness--the great and significant steadfastness first and, secondly, full absorption of the Israeli strike. Over the past few days, the Israelis, in our opinion, did the maximum that they can do, from the air and the sea. Of course, we will discuss the ground option shortly. There is no target--old, new, assumed, expected, based on information or analysis--that they did not hit. Also, when we speak about what was hit, this includes military and civilian targets, but I want to speak now about the military aspect.

I can confirm at this moment--this is not an exaggeration and not part of psychological warfare, but facts--that the command structure of Hezbollah has not been harmed. Yesterday night, they conducted a very violent raid on a building in the southern suburb. They spoke about 22 tonnes of explosives and a large number of aircraft that conducted the raid. They said that they made an achievement and killed some Hezbollah leaders and a large number of members of the resistance. This is not true. At any rate, your correspondent reported that he saw the area and that no ambulances came to the scene and no rescue efforts were made because the building is vacant and is under construction. The entire command structure of Hezbollah, including the political, jihadist, executive, and social--so far, the Zionists have not managed to kill any Hezbollah cadre or leader at any level.

[Bin-Jiddu] Do you mean the political leaders or the military commanders?

[Nasrallah] All of them. Certainly, I would like to tell you and tell the viewers that when a martyr falls, we inform his family and we then announce this. We do not hide our martyrs until the end of the battle. We have never done this. On the contrary, we always take pride in our martyrs. Until this very moment, praise be to God, anything that could affect the command or administrative structure that is managing the battle or that is not managing the battle--those who are directly linked to the battle or have a relationship to some aspects of the existing situation--this structure has remained intact. This is especially true in the case of the military structure that is present in the field. This is first. The second thing that I can confirm is that all the Israeli talk that they hit 50 per cent of our rocket capability and warehouses--all of this is untrue and nonsense. Until this moment, they have not been able to hit anything in this context. I confirm this to you. The evidence is that the resistance has continued to fire rockets--not the regular Katyusha rockets that are fired on the frontline settlements--the resistance is still striking Haifa, Tiberias, Safad [Zefat] and deep [into Israel] as well. We control even the number of rockets that are fired. Today, the resistance can fire hundreds of rockets in a single day. There is no obstacle in the field despite the intensive air activity of the Zionists.

We control the number [of rockets] because we are managing our battle. I will go back shortly to the management of the battle. There fore, as far as the rocket structure is concerned, things are excellent and this structure or capability has not been impaired at all. We have the ability to go on for a long time. Also, the fighters in the field have not started action so far. The ground confrontations that occurred over the past two days are the beginnings of the confrontation. The fighters on the border have so far not made a strenuous effort over the past few days. We are still at the beginning of action. Therefore, as far as the ground and rocket situation is concerned and on the level of capabilities and cadres, leadership, and organization in general, which is broader than the jihadist aspect or other political, social, and media aspects, the structure is still strong and solid and continuing, praise be to God.

The strike against the battleship off the coast of Beirut has made the Israelis decide to keep all their warships away from the Lebanese coast by tens of kilometres. What is reported sometimes in the media, to the effect that warships are bombarding the suburb or a certain area, is wrong. This is not true. The warships are not bombarding most areas because they are far away from the coast. The Israeli air force is the one that is conducting the bombing. In all events, this air force is a superior force. This is the picture of the field situation. Of course, in the confrontations that occurred, a number of Mirkava tanks have been destroyed so far. Some of these tanks are Mirkava of the fourth generation, which are the most advanced type of the Israeli Mirkava.

The Israelis admit the ferocity, power, and courage of the fighters on the frontlines. Certainly, we are wagering on those fighters. I think that if we take the picture of the military situation in general, I can confirm that Hezbollah has so far remained steadfast; secondly, it has managed to absorb the strike; thirdly, to move to the stage of taking the initiative; and fourthly, to offer some surprises, which it has promised. There is still a number of surprises, which we reserve to ourselves in the next stage. In the field, Hezbollah is still managing the battle calmly, slowly, quietly, and without any emotional reaction. You can see this. There are no unnecessary threats and no random rhetoric. We are following things closely and calmly and we calculate the time, place, number, capability, combat, point, front, and all details on the military level. This concerns the military aspect.

[Bin-Jiddu] Excuse me your eminence, what guarantees that what you are kindly describing as calm is not confusion, and what guarantees or confirms that you are running the battle calmly, not with emotional reaction to conceal the inflicted enormous military losses as Israel claims?

[Nasrallah] First, you know Lebanon. Today, the Israelis tightened the noose on the mass media in northern occupied Palestine and occupied Palestine. No one can report any news or broadcast any footage. [News reports] are subject to the Israeli censorship which permits and disseminates them. Even you at Al-Jazeera Channel were subjected to arrests, interrogation, restricted activities, and the like. Why do the Israelis resort to concealing the truth on the other side? Why? Do they do that only because they accuse the media outlets of setting the coordinates? This is nonsense. We have the coordinates of these Israeli settlements and military positions in the north, centre, or in any part of occupied Palestine. We do not need anybody to give us information, images, or the like. In that case, they want to conceal the true scene of the war on the other side because it will have definite impact on the Israeli street and media and the morale of the Israelis. This is what Olmert's government and the Israeli Army fear. On the other side, the media outlets in Lebanon today are reporting on everything, including the raids, the civilian martyrs, the combatant martyrs, and the roads. The towns are open even the Southern Suburb. The media outlets entered it. The media outlets entered and videotaped the place, which was bombarded yesterday at dawn, actually today at dawn. So, everything is evident. You know Lebanon more than anybody else that there are no secrets in Lebanon. If we have martyrs, we can only conceal them for an hour or two because their families and the residents of their village will know about it. Those are not fighters from another country; they are from the citizens of this country. If one of the leaders of Hezbollah is martyred, this will be made known within few hours. Therefore, we do not conceal our martyrs and we are proud of them. Secondly, as for the structure [of the resistance], its performance practically assert that things are still ongoing well. Moreover, the Israelis gave a while ago a picture of trucks to the mass media claiming that these trucks are transporting ammunition to Hezbollah. Well, if they videotape every target they strike, let them provide pictures of the rocket launchers, the launching pads, and the military bases that were bombarded. Thus far, they have been bombarding wrong targets. This indicates a technical failure on the one hand and an intelligence failure on the other. The drilling machines in Al-Ashrafiyah are old machines. So, they do not receive intelligence from the ground and I do not agree with the analysis that suggests they pounded Al-Ashrafiyah because they want to instigate the Christians and the residents of Al-Ashrafiyah against the resistance. We should not be hasty [in drawing conclusions]. They came and videotaped the two drilling machines. They might have looked as rocket launchers in the pictures and therefore they bombarded them. This is a failure. If they are depending on the reconnaissance aircraft, this is a technical failure. If they are depending on the agents on the ground, this is an intelligence failure. So, if they have pictures, let them show them to the world. You might wonder and says is it possible that no rocket launcher was hit. Neither me, nor anybody can claim that. There might be, for example, one or two were hit. After nine days, the strongest air force in the Middle East region and one of the strongest air forces in the world that have access to the airspace while we do not have the capabilities to face them at that level - an air force effectively and strongly present in various ways with the reconnaissance aircraft controlling the airspace of Lebanon - could not until this very minute even stop firing rockets or target the missile force. It is very evident.

[Bin-Jiddu] Can we say that the onset of the ground battle has begun or not?

[Nasrallah] We cannot say that accurately. Until now, what have been taking place are infiltration attempts in certain points on the borders. In this context, the Israelis are seeking to make any achievements. I tell that the only achievement made by the Israelis can be made by any air force in the world. It does not need the grandeur of the Israeli Air Force, namely destroying the bridges, the airport, striking at the ports, factories, the houses. This does not need any [special air force]. Any army that has some aircraft can do that. However, they failed in the face of the military infrastructure of the resistance. They succeeded in killing the children, women, and the elderly. They succeeded in displacing some people. As for the structure of the resistance, I affirm to you that it is present. They know that they are not hiding-- as they claim-- among the civilians. [The battle] is taking place in the frontlines, the mountains, the valleys, and between the trees in a wide area. They are looking for achievements. They talked at dawn today about the bombing of this building in the Southern Suburb. I heard over the past two or three days that they are talking about great, huge, fortified Hezbollah barracks along the borders that were destroyed. I was discussing the issue with the brothers. We discussed whether we should deny the claims or not. Some said: Let them be happy about it as they are showing their people that they made achievements. Let them be happy about their achievements and this might ease the onslaught. They will be happy in the Israeli Army that they made achievements. Others said: Let our public opinion know because this would have positive and negative psychological impact. So, let our public opinion know. Let me ask: Where are the fortified barracks on the borders of the Islamic Resistance? The border posts are actually surveillance posts consisting of a column on which an antenna is attached and another on which a camera is placed. Beside these columns there is a room where one of our youth stays. This is simply what these posts are consisting of. These posts were evacuated right from the first day. If they come today to say that they destroyed frontline positions. They mean these places. If they say that occupied frontline posts, these posts exist along the barbed wires and we evacuated them since the first day when we captured the soldiers. Now that the Israelis' helplessness has been proved, we affirm to you that they have a problem in receiving intelligence from the air and from the ground. Most of their agents are at large, some were arrested, and some disappeared. The agents are facing difficulties in their movements now on the ground to locate or give some information [to Israel]. At any rate, they need some commandoes groups to enter the Lebanese territories, either to collect intelligence or to correct some of the mistakes they made in their strikes on the frontlines. They also need them to conduct operations to capture or kill some of the mujahidin of the resistance, or even to say that they killed or made field achievement since the Israeli Navy retreated and was hit. I do not believe that the air raids are an achievement. So, they are looking for an achievement on the ground. What is happening until know is within this context. I do not call it the beginning of a ground incursion. However, I would like to affirm that that these points were strongly dealt with. It would have been better to provide pictures of the tanks that were destroyed, but the difficult travel conditions prevented that. Anyway, they are admitting that some of the tanks were destroyed, and that some people were killed and wounded. I promise them more fighting and toughness from the mujahidin of the resistance along the borders. As for the ground attack option, it is possible that they might resort to it. We have been ready for it since the first day. I do not want to raise the ceiling of expectations and I do not u se speeches. We are fighting a serious battle. I did not say one day that the Israelis will be unable to enter any post in southern Lebanon. We are not a classic army extending from the sea to Mount Hermon. We are a popular and serious resistance movement that is present in many areas and axes. They might be able to enter a certain point or a village or conduct a large-scale ground operation. They might enter a mountain or a frontline village and claim a historical victory. In order not to say that Hezbollah made a pledged, I did not promise one day something like that or say that. This is not the case. This can happen at any moment. As for us, our equation and principles are the following: When the Israelis enter, they must pay dearly in terms of their tanks, officers, soldiers. This is what we pledge to do and we will honour our pledge, God willing.

[Bin-Jiddu] Do you expect that the battles will be long? Are you preparing, as one of the generals inside [ Lebanon ] warned, for a war of attrition?

[Nasrallah] The battle here, if we want to answer these questions, we should discuss the background of the battle. We are not convinced at all--perhaps during the first hours we can say that the reaction that took place was a natural reaction to the capturing of Israeli soldiers--but hours after this, the issue has gone far beyond a reaction to the capturing of the soldiers. The Israelis entered [ Lebanon ] with a plan. The officials in charge of this plan, commanders, and news media used to talk about it with varying degrees, which we will analyse later. However, they, for example, spoke about destroying Hezbollah, not the missile force, but destroying Hezbollah. Some sides say the dismantling of the military structure of Hezbollah. Others said the annihilation and destruction of the missile force of the military structure, and others said we cannot destroy the military force of Hezbollah, but we want to pain Hezbollah and weaken this force. Then they said pushing Hezbollah far from the borders. Those who talk about pushing Hezbollah 10 or 20 km know that this does not mean pushing the missile force far from the borders. The one who attacks Haifa, Afula, and farther villages, and has the power to attack farther than this, then the story of 10 or 20 km is considered simple details. Some sides said that the objective of the operation is to free the two prisoners. I assure you that the objective of the operation is not to free the two prisoners. At any rate, the slogans on the one hand, and the objectives that were announced for the operation on the other, means that the operation would take a long time. I cannot say one week, two weeks, three weeks, one month, more, or less. This issue depends on the field developments on the one hand, and the political developments on the other. Now...

[Bin-Jiddu, interrupting] Excuse me. Does it depend on you or on Israel?

[Nasrallah] On us and on them. The course of the battle--I will say how--for example, today, the talk began in Israel, and this is a logical analysis, to the effect that the Israeli military operation has reached its peak. What is more than this? I will answer you. What can the Israelis do more than what they did? What is left is the ground incursion, which is costly at any rate. There is an argument, not among the politicians on the political level, even on the military and security levels there is a real argument on the level of the military and security commands. What is left is the ground incursion. Except the incursion, everything the Israelis could do have done. So, they have reached the peak. Now, they have one of two choices: When they reach the peak they either proceed horizontally, or in other words, continue with the same standard or the dose [preceding word in English] of the peak, or they will begin to decline. So, the military operation will begin to decline and to calm down gradually to pave the way for a political settlement. How much time would this take? This depends on developments. When time drags--the north is brought to a halt, northern Israel, excuse me, I apologize, I mean northern occupied Palestine--there are two million Israelis who are either in shelters or outside the area, displaced outside the area. The entire economy in the north is brought to a halt. The factories, trade, tourism, and economic movement are all brought to a halt. The number of the killed and injured on their side could be much less than on our side, but this is natural. This is because they have a huge arsenal. Our arsenal is not for destruction, retaliation, and revenge, but a deterrent arsenal. They have a huge destructive power. There is no exaggeration here. They also have shelters. Give me one village in the south that has shelters in it. Up till now a large part of the people of the south are still in the south. Had there been shelters, the people would have remained there and would not have le ft . No one likes to live in school to be given ration. However, on their side, from the borders to deep in the north, there are shelters in the settlements. So, it is only logical that the number of those killed and wounded on their side is less than on our side. However, what affects the economy and the pressure the people are exposed to as a result of displacement and living in shelters. [Sentence incomplete as heard] They promised them with a quick operation within a few days. The first day and then the second day passed, and every day they say three or four times in the Israeli news media that they have killed me, killed the Hezbollah leaders, and made false achievements. So, what is next? Until when will this continue? The Israeli society is so far rallying round the government. We have seen this experience in 1993, in 1996, and in past wars, but this solidarity will begin to vanish with the passage of time. So, if the military operation took a horizontal direction or began to decline, then the peak that is higher than this is the ground incursion. I am sure that the ground incursion will be a catastrophe to the Israeli army. This is not a threat. You know from day one that I speak calmly and objectively on these issues. The issue now, if it continues...

[Bin-Jiddu, interrupting] Excuse me; you repeated the word disaster on more than one occasion.

[Nasrallah] I mean a disaster for their tanks, officers, and soldiers. There will be a high price for them to pay. Right from the first day, I never claimed, even during negotiations and in my past speeches, that I can shoot down F-16's. We have never claimed that. We did not claim such a thing even during the [confrontation] in the sea, but we managed to surprise them in the sea. As for the land, we have 24-year experience; we have long and real experience in the land. We have high and efficient fighting capabilities, good armed capabilities, and good reserves.

It is a matter of time now. I rule out that the Israelis can make a military achievement. It is a matter of time. On the one hand, there is our military steadfastness, and on the other there is the political and popular steadfastness. They [the Israelis] are wagering on seeing the country's political situation break up and weaken, and on seeing a decline in the popular support for the resistance in order to achieve political results. We, on the other hand, are wagering on our steadfastness and that of our people, and on seeing a decline in the Israeli internal support for the military operation and on the pressures on the enemy's government, the beginning of which we began to see today.

[Bin-Jiddu] We will discuss the political issues. I want to go back to what you said about the popular steadfastness. Y

 

 

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