Normalization with Israel by any country amounts to abandoning Palestine, bolsters enemy: Hezbollah leader

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a Monday televised speech on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

“Any country that moves toward normalization of its relations [with Israel] must be condemned, because this step amounts to abandoning Palestine and bolstering the [Zionist] enemy, which must not be tolerated,” the Hezbollah leader said.

Nasrallah was making an apparent reference to the latest efforts by the United States to persuade Saudi Arabia to normalize its relations with the Israeli regime.

Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah urged the “Muslim Ummah” to fulfill its responsibility toward the Palestinian people and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

“The Muslim Ummah must shoulder responsibility for what is happening to the brave people of Palestine and the al-Aqsa Mosque, and Zionists must hear the voice of the Muslim world with regard to the first qibla of Muslims.”

Arab and Muslim countries have criticized Riyadh for keeping the door open to a renewed push by the United States to work out a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, saying it would be a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and encourage the Israeli regime to intensify its aggression.

Palestinian resistance movements believe that Israel has already been emboldened by the potential success of efforts to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia, saying attempts in recent weeks by extremist settlers to make regular presence in the al-Aqsa Mosque show the regime wants to pile up pressure on Palestinians.

Reports suggest that Washington will reward Saudi Arabia for normalizing ties with Israel with a major security pact as well as support for the kingdom’s plans to develop a peaceful nuclear program.

This comes as calls for the regular presence of Jewish extremists in the Aqsa Mosque have increased in recent days concurrent with holidays that mark a Jewish festival.

Israeli police allows settlers’ incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque complex despite repeated condemnations by Palestinians and international community. The provocative incidents have been on the rise since the far-right cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office last December.

Such incursions come despite the fact that non-Muslim worship at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound is prohibited according to an agreement between the occupying Israeli regime and the Jordanian government following the regime’s seizure of East al-Quds in 1967.

Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah touched on the West’s media war against Muslim nations, which he said was aimed at undermining those nations and achieving goals that have not been realized through wars.

“Enemies use the media war, which is also known as the soft war, to weaken nations and … achieve those goals, which they have failed to realize through military wars,” Nasrallah said.

He also pointed to economic problems facing Syria and displacement of a large number of its people due to a Western-sponsored terrorist war against Damascus, emphasizing that the United States is the primary culprit behind Syria’s refugee crisis.

“The main party responsible for the influx of refugees into Lebanon is that who kindled the war in Syria, that is, the US government,” the Hezbollah leader said.

“Following the implementation of the Caesar Act, the United States is also responsible for the economic crisis in Syria. Those who believe that Syrian refugees are a threat to Lebanon must tell Washington that Lebanon would be saved through the abrogation of the Caesar Act,” Nasrallah said.

Syria has been a target of US sanctions since 1979. Following the start of the foreign-sponsored terrorist war in the country in 2011, the US and its Western allies imposed several rounds of sanctions on the Arab country. The sanctions intensified with the passing of the Caesar Act in 2019, which targeted any individual and business that participated either directly or indirectly in Syria’s reconstruction efforts.