Sayyed Nasrallah: “Israel” Behind PM Hariri’s Assassination

Nour Rida

Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah held an exceptional press conference via video link in which he revealed documents on assassinated former PM Rafiq Hariri.

Sayyed Nasrallah's press conference, which was set to open new horizons that the court could pick up and build on "if it wanted to be impartial" took place in Beirut's Southern Suburb in Shahed Hall, in presence of Media editors in chief and top journalists who attended the press conference including Talal Salman, Jean Aziz, Charles Ayoub, Ghassan Ben Jeddo, and former Minister Michel Samaha.

Following introduction by Head of Hizbullah Media Relations Ibrahim Moussawi and the Lebanese and Hizbullah Hymns, Sayyed Nasrallah began his conference saying he will answer questions about "delayed timing" of revelations at end of press conference.

Sayyed Nasrallah first talked about accusing "Israel" of assassinating former PM Hariri, which -through recruiting one of its agents- had been plotting to deceive former PM Rafiq Hariri since 1993 and make him believe that Hizbullah wants to assassinate him. Sayyed Nasrallah said that in the year 1993, Hizbullah was organizing a protest in the southern suburb against the signing of the Oslo Accord, after which clashes broke out and tension increased between PM Hariri and Hizbullah.

The first of a series of audio-visual proof that documented and reiterated Sayyed Nasrallah's words was a video of an "Israeli" agent Ahmad Nasrallah, that proved "Israeli" fabrications started since that year.

In the video, "Israeli" spy Ahmad Nasrallah admitted that he had been trying to control the course of Hariri's motorcade through deluding him into believing that Hizbullah wants to murder him in 1993, and mentioned the name Imad Moghnieh. After interrogating Ahmad Nasrallah and his confession of photographing houses of Hizbullah leaders, he also admitted that he had been blackmailing Hariri.

According to spy Ahmad Nasrallah's false revelations after September 13, 1993, Syrian intelligence ordered the arrest of Ali Dib known as Abu Hasan Salemeh, a Hizbullah official, who was brutally hit and assaulted during interrogation.

Sayyed said that spy Ahmed Nasrallah deluded Hariri into thinking that Hizbullah had a plan to assassinate Bahia Hariri, and hence to force him to go to Sidon to receive condolences so that he would be assassinated there.

Moreover, Sayyed said ""Israeli" spy Ahmad Nasrallah who was arrested and interrogated by the Resistance in 1996 was handed over to the Syrians and he was arrested for 7 months, then he was taken to Lebanon and he was later released for reasons I am not aware of."

Upon false claim by the spy, Hizbullah handed Abu Hassan Salemeh who was brutally hit upon interrogation as the spy Ahmad had claimed Salemeh had been planning to murder Hariri.

"We handed over Hizbullah member Abu Hassan Salameh to the Syrians over a false claim by Ahmed Nasrallah that Salameh had been plotting to murder Hariri, but later on we found out that Salameh was innocent." Sayyed said.

By that, the video screened showed the spy confessing that his claims to former PM Rafiq Hariri that Hizbullah aimed to kill him were mere lies, not to mention he acknowledged working for "Israel" and saying that he was asked by his "Israeli" handlers to warn Hariri's men of the assassination plot.

Following the information on the spy Ahmed Nasrallah, a series of documents on spies were screened including agents Philipos Hanna, Saeed Tanyos, Faysal Mokalled, Mahmoud Rafe'e, Adib Alam and his wife Hayat Al Sloumi, Nasser Nader, and that is only a few of the dozens of spies who were exposed collaborating with the "Israeli" enemy.

Some of the spies-according to the data demonstrated- confessed to collecting information about Geagea and Saad Hariri, the question Sayyed Nasrallah asked why March 14 leaders are the ones always being targeted by monitoring, and said the answer is that "Israel" wants the blame to fall on Syria and Hizbullah.

According to Sayyed Nasrallah, as "Israel" murdered the Sunni Hariri and civil strife didn't erupt, the enemy planned to murder the Shiite Speaker Nabih Berri to drag Lebanon into the strife which didn't occur after Hariri's death.

And so, Sayyed Nasrallah said "Israel" wouldn't miss a chance to create an uproar and use Hariri's blood to drive Syria out of Lebanon and besiege the Resistance, as the Zionist entity also had the motive because the Resistance is "Israel's" major enemy.

After showing another video of "Israeli" accusations against Hizbullah of involvement in Hariri's murder, Sayyed Nasrallah decided to change the roles. He pointed out that "Israel" has the capability to carry out an operation like the one that targeted former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on February 14, 2005.

On Syria and its presence in Lebanon, Sayyed Nasrallah recalled Syrian President Bashar Assad telling him that an Arab leader in 2004, before the issuing of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, informed him that the US does not mind keeping Syrian forces in Lebanon, but under the condition of disarming Hizbullah and Palestinian factions in Lebanon. Otherwise, there is the project to force Syria out of Lebanon and isolate Hizbullah.

Sayyed Nasrallah said there are reasons behind the accusing "Israel" of assassinating PM Hariri, the first of which is that "Israel" has the capability of carrying out such type of operations, and the "Israeli" history is full of assassinations and similar crimes against high-ranking figures and leaders whether in Lebanon or elsewhere, and we have witnessed some in Lebanon in the few past years.

Sayyed tackled the "Israeli" methods of operation, highlighting that the "Israeli" enemy has wiretapping devices, aerial and field surveillance devices in addition to logistic support to carry out the assassination operation in the Lebanese interior, of which the most familiar aerial surveillance method to the Lebanese is the MK plane known even by the villagers.

""Israel" is interested in performing assassination operations near the seafront. It assigned one of the spies to collect information about President Suleiman's house and its distance from the shore and about Army Commander Qahwaji's yacht," Sayyed went on to say.

While noting that the revelations made by the spies, although they only constitute a sample, confirm that "Israeli" intelligence operations in Lebanon didn't stop during the last few years in Lebanon, Sayyed Nasrallah called for collecting the spies' confessions in order to draw a diagram of their work.

On the Telecoms Network, Sayyed Nasrallah said this issue will be tackled later, but highlighted that the Zionist enemy has widely infiltrated the Telecoms Network on the technical level, by that it does not need its agents to be active all the time as it is capable of realizing what it wants through technical control.

As for the secret Sayyed revealed, it is that before 1997, Hizbullah was able to catch an "Israeli" spy plane photographing South Lebanon and sending them to an "Israeli" operations center.

"Before 1997, Hizbullah managed to capture the transmission of an MK drone and we managed to access this transmission which enabled us to capture the images transmitted by the drone as the enemy's operation room was receiving them. The capturing of the MK drone images by the Resistance's operation room led to the foiling of the enemy's assault on Ansariyeh on September 5, 1997," Sayyed Nasrallah said, before showing details of the Ansariyeh operation and explaining how this tactic helped the Resistance fighters foil the "Israeli" attempt.

Hizbullah Secretary General then turned to the most sensitive part of the press conference, which is substantial proof showing the "Israeli" enemy carefully monitoring the movements of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and his locations.

In this regard, Sayyed Nasrallah unveiled footage intercepted from "Israeli" surveillance planes of the site of the 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri prior to his assassination.

"Israeli" drones had carefully monitored the movements of (former) premier Rafiq Hariri's motorcade in Beirut and on the Farayya-Faqra road: was that a coincidence?" Sayyed wondered.

Several clips, each minutes long and undated, showed aerial views of the coastline off west Beirut on various days prior to the Hariri assassination. "Are there any Hizbullah offices in these areas monitored by "Israel"? Why is "Israel" monitoring these locations?" Sayyed Nasrallah speculated.

"We have definite information on the aerial movements of the "Israeli" enemy the day Hariri was murdered. Hours before he was murdered, an "Israeli" drone was surveying the Sidon-Beirut-Jounieh coastline as warplanes were flying over Beirut." Sayyed said on these evidences he provided if ignored by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), then that would prove the STL politicized.