Sayyed Nasrallah: More Iranian Ships to Follow, Iranian Drilling Companies Ready to Extract Offshore Oil and Gas
Zeinab Essa
Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered on Sunday a speech during the memorial ceremony of martyr Hajj Abbas Al-Yatama.
At the beginning of his speech, Sayyed Nasrallah offered condolences to the family of martyr Al-Yatama as well all his beloved people, congratulating them for the fact that this prominent leader has reached his goals. “I personally know martyr Al-Yatama, who belongs to the generation of Hezbollah’s establishment in 1982,” he said, noting that “When speaking about people like Hajj Abbas Al-Yatama, I like to recall the founding generation of the Islamic Resistance, they're the people of 1982.”
On the characteristics of the martyr, His Eminence highlighted that “Martyr Abbas had a beautiful soul, like his beautiful appearance. He was brave and courageous.”
He recalled that Abu Maitham “joined this resistance at the age of 17, and soon his personal characteristics became evident in front of his brothers. Martyr Abbas started as a fighter, then a trainer and later assumed various leadership responsibilities. He was personally present in the field operations.”
According to the Resistance Leader, “Among the personal characteristics of the martyr Abbas were faith, etiquette, forbearance, patience and good behavior. He further possessed excellent leadership capabilities.”
“Martyr Abbas was one of the military leaders in the South. He is from Hermel and he was as a resistance’s military leader in the South,” he stated, pointing out that “Martyr Abbas, like his brothers, the rest of the martyrs are witnesses that the honorable people of this region embraced the resistance and sacrificed it with the best of their youth.”
In addition Sayyed Nasrallah unveiled that “Abu Maitham was among the military leaders who took part in the July war in South Lebanon, and he was the one who wrote the letter of the Mujahideen [for me] during the war, which conveys his loyalty to the resistance.”
Sayyed Nasrallah further revealed that “When the events in Syria began, martyr Abbas was one of the first leaders who joined the battle and was present in the most dangerous places. Abu Maitham has been to the most dangerous zones from Aleppo, to the besieged city and airport, as well as the road of Ethriya-Khanaser.”
“Martyr Al-Yatama was a field commander next to senior Syrian Army commanders, resistance leaders such as Haj Mustafa Badriddine, and Iranian Generals in Syria, atop of whom was martyr leader Hajj Qassem Soleimani,” His Eminence added.
Emphasizing that “The secret of the resistance's strength is that it has never sought gains here or there,” Sayyed Nasrallah lamented the fact that “Since the establishment of the state, the Bekaa region has received nothing but deprivation and negligence, but return it has offered honesty, the best of its youth and pure blood.”
“These people spared nothing, neither in confronting the Zionist scheme nor the American project. The people of Baalbek-Hermel did not wait for anyone to defend their villages and all of Lebanon,” he said.
Moving to the political front, Hezbollah Secretary General explained that “The Americans do believe that we are people who seek the worldly life, as if by threatening us with this life they might be able to change our stance. They didn’t understand until now what does it mean to belong to the Islam pf Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] and the Karbala of Imam Hussein [AS].”
In parallel, His Eminence clarified that “The battle that is being waged in Lebanon against the resistance and the true national forces has been run by the American embassy since 2005. However, they have failed.”
On this level, he uncovered that “Tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2005 in order to distort the image of the resistance, and they failed.”
“The US seeks to set Lebanon under its control so that it does not pose any threat to “Israel”,” Sayyed Nasrallah reminded, warning that “The US embassy in Lebanon is responsible for targeting the livelihood of the Lebanese people as it interferes in every single aspect.”
He also underscored that “The US and Saudi embassies have been working in the past years to ignite a civil war in Lebanon. The American embassy wants to make Lebanon move into chaos. It seeks to strike the Lebanese society and the Lebanese person with his dignity and family.”
Meanwhile, Sayyed Nasrallah reiterated that “After spending $30 billion for political parties that were not able to serve them, they turned to the civil society.”
Urging the Lebanese state to shoulder its responsibility in facing the current crisis, he viewed that “It is not Hezbollah that can open the country in front of Chinese and Russian companies for investment. This is the state’s duty. We urged them to buy from Iran by the Lebanese pound, and they replied that the Americans would put us on the sanctions list. We offered the state options and proposals for which it turned a deaf ear, and Lebanon continued in the path of declining.”
Amid this negligence, Sayyed Nasrallah clearly announced: “Our second ship will sail from Iran within days, and other ships will follow.”
He further stressed that “It is not a matter of one ship or two; this is a path which we will keep moving on as long as Lebanon needs it,” noting that “The goal is to help all the Lebanese people and ease their sufferings.”
However, His Eminence assured that “We-in Hezbollah- are neither a substitute for the state nor for importing companies or stations. We do not want to compete with anyone.”
“We will bring in fair amounts of oil derivatives to ease the pressure against companies, gas stations and the black market,” he said, noting that his party seeks “to break the greedy prices and ease the people’s sufferings.”
In this context, Sayyed Nasrallah went on to say: “We are not supposed to bring Lebanon's full demand of gasoline and diesel but rather good quantities that alleviate pressure off the companies and the stations.”
Once again, he urged the government to alleviate the suffering of the people and assume its responsibilities.
In parallel, Sayyed Nasrallah denounced “Those monopolizing oil derivatives” calling for arresting and imprisoning them.
Regarding US ambassador Dorothy Shea’s initiative towards Lebanon, His Eminence welcomed the Egyptian gas, the Jordanian electricity project and anything that might help Lebanon.
However, His Eminence reminded that “If the US seeks to help Lebanon, it should lift its veto on providing support to Lebanon.”
To the Lebanese people, he elaborated that “What is important for the Lebanese to know is that the proposal of the American ambassador requires a period between 6 months and 1 year to be done. The US project needs negotiations with Syria and could not be performed in the dark night.”
“The US ambassador is talking illusions, but in case her project could be achieved we won’t be annoyed as this means breaking the siege on Lebanon and Syria.”
To the US administration and its ambassador in Lebanon, Sayyed Nasrallah said: “If you want to help Lebanon, tell your administration to stop preventing other countries from helping Lebanon, and we wouldn't want neither your initiative nor your money.”
On another level, Sayyed Nasrallah asked “Who will shoulder the responsibility for the Tuleil incident in Akkar, and where did the investigations reach?”
To the Lebanese government, Hezbollah Secretary General said: “If you accept, we have companies that are able to extract oil and gas and sell it. The companies that I mentioned are not afraid of the “Israeli” bombing, and they can extract gas and oil and sell it. If the companies fear “Israel” and the sanctions, we are willing to bring an Iranian drilling company to extract offshore oil and gas, and let “Israel” bomb it.”
“The Resistance after July 2006 war became stronger and after every battle it maintained its existence and ended stronger than before,” he said, concluding that “The enemy and the Americans, and their affiliates, will discover that their popular and political losses will be very huge.”
