Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah told an Egyptian interviewer that Iran and Syria fund, train, and control his organization as an effort to spread radical Shi'ite Islam throughout the region:

"Iran assists the organization with money, weapons, and training, motivated by a religious fraternity and ethnic solidarity," Nasrallah said. "And the help is funneled through Syria, and everybody knows it."

The Hizbullah leader added that his organization is ready to accept assistance from any Arab or Islamic party, like Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

Responding to accusations that his organization acts as "a state within a state," Nasrallah said that the current Lebanese government has yet to fulfill its obligation of securing the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, and getting Israeli-occupied land back. Accordingly, Nasrallah said that the people, or part of the people, are free to try and realize those goals by themselves.

This comes as little surprise to anyone, but it does provide explicit confirmation of Iran's use of proxy terrorists in the region to extend its hegemony through violence and intimidation. It also confirms that Syria allows itself to be used as a conduit for the Iranian mullahcracy. The admission makes it clear, despite Nasrallah's insistence that Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization, that Nasrallah leads a group that owes its allegiance to Teheran and not Beirut.

Nasrallah also admitted that he miscalculated the Israeli response to their attack on IDF outposts this summer. Israel's overwhelming use of force came as a surprise, which Nasrallah blamed on an intelligence failure. They expected Israel to respond as it had in the past, on a scale commensurate to the original attack. Instead, the Olmert government decided to respond asymmetrically, a good decision which they inexplicably scratched after launching the invasion of southern Lebanon.

That isn't an intelligence failure, however, unless Nasrallah means to say that he's an idiot. The Israelis at some point were going to stop playing the tit-for-tat game that Hezbollah prefers, because it was getting Israel nowhere. Anyone with half a brain could have predicted it, even if they couldn't necessarily predict which Hezbollah attack would provoke the overwhelming response. To claim "surprise" at this reaction shows exactly how provincial Nasrallah is, and why the Iranians and the Syrians have to run Hezbollah on his behalf.

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Nasrallah Admits Hezbollah Funded, Run By Iran And Syria Ed Morrissey Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah told an Egyptian interviewer that Iran and Syria fund, train, and control his organization as an effort to spread radical Shi'ite Islam throughout th... [Read More]

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