Nasrallah: Soleimani and Trump ‘ushered in confrontation with resistance’

The assassination of IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani and the release of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan has “ushered in direct confrontation with the axis of resistance in Lebanon,” Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah warned.

“All the people of the region will carry a rifle, because this American tyrant has left no room for anyone,” Nasrallah said during a televised speech commemorating 40 days since the assassination of Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis

According to Nasrallah, “the assassination of Hajj Qasem Soleimani and the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ have been designed to facilitate the US and Israeli domineering policy in the region and  that the “two crimes had ushered a direct confrontation with the axis of resistance in Lebanon.”

The leader of the Lebanese terror group called for forming a “united resistance front” against the US across the globe, and urged an economic boycott against American products as a “new weapon” of confrontation by the group since Washington’s “point of weakness is its economy.”

“We have never seen an American regime like Trump’s,” he said. “When Trump kills the leaders in a public and brutal manner, he declares war and we are still slowly reacting.”

“The Israeli enemy has a major weakness which is the human losses; similarly, the Americans have their economic and financial situation as a point of fragility.  Hezbollah hit the Israeli enemy at its weakness, so, likewise, we can concentrate on the US economic interests,” he was quoted by al-Manar as saying.

Nasrallah described the killing of Soleimani and Muhandis as the first of “two great crimes” committed by the Trump administration, with the second being the release of the Deal of the Century.

“The Deal of the Century is a Zionist plot to end Palestinian causes. “No people in the world would accept a proposed state like [this],” he said.“In fact, this is not a deal, it’s a dictation which its failure depends on the resistance of Islamic states.”

According to Nasrallah, Lebanese national interests -including the land and maritime borders- would also be negatively affected by the plan.

“The spirit of Trump’s plan will be decisive in the issue of demarcating the land and sea borders with occupied Palestine and will affect Lebanon’s oil wealth,” he said adding that the deal would also give Shebaa Farms, Kfarchouba Hills and Ghajar village to Israel.

In addition to the land borders, Israel and Lebanon have an unresolved maritime border dispute over a triangular area of sea of around 860 sq km that extends along several blocks for exploratory offshore drilling by Beirut.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a deadly 33-day war in 2006, which came to an end under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which called for disarmament of Hezbollah, for withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanon, for the deployment of the Lebanese army and an enlarged UN force in the south.

Blaming Washington and Jerusalem for being behind all wars in the region, Nasrallah stressed that there “is no other option” but all-out resistance by the group and it’s supporters.

“We are not afraid of the US and we believe in our own capabilities and faith,” he said.