Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Hezbollah’s Defeat | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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If the events in Lebanon today are perceived in accordance with who won and who lost, then the answer is undoubtedly Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah are the losing party.

Hassan Nasrallah and his party were defeated the day the divinely-guided leader lost his credibility on the Lebanese street and before the Arab and Islamic worlds. It makes no difference how much he pledges today or tomorrow; the Arabs, Muslims and Lebanese will never forget how Hezbollah turned its weapons against its own people after numerous vows that it would only use them against Israel.

The pro-Iranian Hezbollah and its supporters and allies lost after the party invalidated its own immunity and was exposed through abhorrent sectarian practices that the residents of Beirut have witnessed firsthand and will not forget – irrespective of the solutions proposed in Beirut now or the outcome of the talks held in Doha today.

Nasrallah lost when he unleashed the beast of sectarian war and its slogans among the Sunnis and Shia, and in the process assaulting many. And if the streets of Beirut have been cleaned, the wounds have still not healed and the families of victims will not forget their loved ones.

Furthermore, the Arabs will never forget, no matter what they claim, what the Iranian Hezbollah did in the Sunni areas of Beirut. Hassan Nasrallah has raised the alarm and warned the people of the danger of his model throughout the Arab world.

Nasrallah and his party were defeated after he [involuntarily] persuaded the Lebanese citizens and their leaders to lose all confidence in Hezbollah and its leadership so that the obsession today has become one of accumulating and stockpiling weapons – and this will be the major concern in the near future, and the coming days will prove it.

The Druze will not forget the battle of the mountain and how the intruders infiltrated and entered into the Druze areas guised as farmers; however when things heated up, they were revealed to be agents of Hezbollah. Today there will be searches and inspections of intentions and souls – not just weapons.

Moreover, the Sunnis will not forget the occupation of West Beirut and the pictures of Hassan Nasrallah and his [religious] references, while pictures of the martyr [Rafik] Hariri were ripped and replaced by the ruler of Damascus instead in what was the worst form of treason, subordination and a mockery of Lebanon’s symbols.

All the media personnel throughout Lebanon will not forget that by seizing control of the state, the Iranian Hezbollah muzzled the media – and the Lebanese people have borne witness to the burning of media outlets in Lebanon just as they have witnessed the assassination of media personnel and their elimination without knowing who was responsible for it. But today, the Lebanese can see who is behind the disruption of its media.

Hezbollah emerges defeated today and its subordination and treason, with its affiliation to Iran and Syria, has been exposed. But before all that, Hezbollah was defeated after the scale of their party and military might was exposed, undoubtedly by opponents that would jump at the chance to break up the pro-Iran Hezbollah. Arrogance has blinded Hassan Nasrallah who has become vanquished on all levels.

Hezbollah lost its standing with regards to controlling the Lebanese state just as it lost the halo that had granted it personal conviction that it was invincible. The party has come to realize that its weapons will not be easily granted by Beirut and suffice it to recall what happened to Hezbollah during the clashes in the [Druze] mountain.

If, as some believe, [Lebanese Prime Minister] Fouad Siniora’s government has committed an error when it made the two decisions that led to Hezbollah’s occupation of Beirut, then it is the cleverest of mistakes because it ended the fraudulent legend of Hezbollah without firing a single bullet.

The legend of the leader has died, as has the legend of arms, independence and the myth that the party is not sectarian.