Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that commander Mustafa Badreddine played a key role in fighting the Israeli military in the Khalde battle.
“When Hezbollah decided to enter Syria, it tasked Badreddine with overseeing its security and military units in the Syrian territories,” Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on the group's Al Manar television marking one week since the killing of is top military commander near Damascus.
“During the first phase of the intervention in Syria, Badreddine was overseeing the operations from Lebanon, seemingly since I prevented him from going to Syria to ensure his safety,” he added.
Nasrallah expressed regret that some Arabs and Lebanese people said that Hezbollah did not hold Israel accountable for the commander’s death out of cowardice.
“Our history is a proof that we never lie about our achievements or retaliation pledges,” he stressed.
Commenting on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’ stance, which announced that it cannot provide any comment on Mustafa Badreddine's death before the issuance of a judicial ruling, Hezbollah chief said, “To us, the file of the STL does not exist and we’re not concerned with anything it may request.”
Badreddine was charged with leading the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in the Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, in 2005.
He was tried in absentia by the ongoing STL, in The Hague, over the killing of Hariri.
He was also indicted on four charges and was said by the said tribunal to be "the overall controller of the operation" to kill Hariri.
Speaking of the Syrian war, Nasrallah called on all “those who are looking for the truth” to watch the American and western medias.
This as he vowed to strengthen Hezbollah’s presence in Syria and send a greater number of leaders than before.
"No death of any of our leaders will drive us from the battle. This precious blood will push us to a larger, stronger and more sophisticated presence," he stated.
As for the dossier related to Saudi Arabia, he said that Saudi remarks about freedoms, constitutions, elections, reforms and the multi-party system are the worst form of hypocrisy.
Speaking of the municipal elections, Nasrallah urged the residents of the South to vote en masse, calling for a high turnout.
Hezbollah said last Saturday (May 19) its top military commander, whose death it announced one day earlier, was killed in Syria by Sunni Islamist artillery fire and not by an Israeli air strike as one member of the Lebanese Shi'ite movement had said.
"Investigations have showed that the explosion, which targeted one of our bases near Damascus International Airport, and which led to the martyrdom of commander Mustafa Badreddine, was the result of artillery bombardment carried out by takfiri (hardline Sunni) groups in the area," the party said in a statement.
The Shi'ite Muslim group is fighting in Syria, backing President Bashar al-Assad against a range of Sunni groups including Islamic State and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
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