BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Thursday that his Lebanese militant group, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, would be by Damascus’s side as Islamist-led militants press a sweeping offensive.
In a televised address, Qassem denounced “terrorist groups” who want to “destroy Syria again... to bring down the government” and “create chaos.”
“They will not be able to achieve their goals despite what they have done in past days, and we as Hezbollah will be by Syria’s side in thwarting the goals of this aggression as much as we can,” Qassem said.
He did not elaborate on what sort of support his group might provide, but Hezbollah suffered heavy losses in its war with Israel which ended with a fragile ceasefire on November 27, the day the Syria militants launched their offensive.
Qassem accused the United States and Israel of supporting “takfiri” factions, a term the Shiite Muslim group uses to refer to jihadists or supporters of radical Sunni Islam.
Militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch, and allied factions launched the surprise attack and have since seized the major cities of Aleppo and Hama.
The militants’ advance in Aleppo province was in an area where pro-Iran groups including Hezbollah had previously had a significant presence, before drawing it down in recent months in the face of the war with Israel.
Hezbollah has openly backed Assad’s forces since 2013.
Hezbollah fighters helped Assad regain territory lost earlier in the civil war which broke out in 2011 after the repression of anti-government protests.
Hezbollah chief says group will be by Syria’s side amid militant offensive
https://arab.news/rt5xb
Hezbollah chief says group will be by Syria’s side amid militant offensive
- Qassem denounced “terrorist groups” who want to “destroy Syria again... to bring down the government“
- He did not elaborate on what sort of support his group might provide
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
