(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that Islamic State jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq pose an existential threat to Lebanon and argued that his party’s military campaign in Syria was protecting the country.
“The [Islamic State] wants to destroy everything; they are a danger to everyone,” he said in a televised address delivered on the occasion of the eight anniversary of the end of the 2006 July War.
“I call on all Lebanese people to realize that your country and your society is facing an existential danger.”
However, the Hezbollah chief rejected calling on the international community for assistance as IS fighters continue to press their military campaign in Syria and Iraq, where they have routed government forces and taken over large swathes of the country.
“Christians of Lebanon: If any of you think that any of you mean anything to the US or the West, you are wrong. Are you really waiting for the US and the international community?”
Nasrallah warned that Western states don’t “care about Christians, Kurds, Yazidis or Arabs,” adding that the US started its airstrikes against the IS in Iraq only after the jihadist group’s fighters reached the outskirts of the Kurdish city of Arbil.
Instead, the Hezbollah chief called for the Lebanese people to support their country’s army, which fought a five-day campaign against Islamist jihadists in the border town of Arsal earlier in July.
“Put all political preferences aside, look for all elements of force and gather them. Those elements are the LAF and security forces.”
Nasrallah added that his party was not responsible for securing Lebanon from jihadist threats, saying the responsibility belongs to the state and the army and security forces.
However, he argued that his party’s military campaign on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria was serving to protect Lebanon.
“If Hezbollah withdraws from Syria, do you really think that IS will not want to come to Lebanon?”
Nasrallah questioned if a Hezbollah withdrawal from Syria border regions “would benefit Lebanon.”
Shiite-populated areas in Lebanon have been the target of a series of terror attacks since Nasrallah announced in May 2013 that his Shiite party was fighting on behalf of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
Lebanese Armed Forces and other security forces have since attempted to uncover terror networks in Lebanon, and have been able to dismantle a number of explosives-rigged cars coming from Syria.