Zahraa al-Derzi: Hezbollah’s Response Indicates New Deterrence Equations

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TEHRAN (FNA)- Zahraa al-Derzi, journalist, says the operation by Hezbollah shows the Resistance Front is in a new defensive stage, in which Israel will receive military responses for every assault it launches on any member of the Resistance Front.

In an explosive interview with FNA, al-Derzi said, “This is not the first time for Seyed Hassan Nasrallah to keep his promises and Israelis know that very well. Thus, they know from now on, they cannot commit an assault without getting a response, unless they want to take risks to face new surprises, or to enter a war they cannot handle.”

Zahraa al-Derzi is a Syrian freelance journalist based in the Lebanese capital. Her reports from the war fields in Syria were published by various media. As a field correspondent, she extensively covered the war against Daesh [ISIL, also known as ISIS] in Syria.

Below is the full text of the interview:

Q: Hezbollah’s attack came in response to an Israeli air raid that killed two of its fighters. It sounds Hezbollah can shatter Israel’s sense of impunity?

A: First, thinking out of the box, Seyed Hassan Nasrallah is an official speaker not only for Hezbollah, but for a whole axis of resistance and expresses the policies of the axis, then we can consider the latest operation of Hezbollah, is a stern message to Israel announcing new deterrence equations for Lebanon primarily in addition to Syria, Iran, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen too. Seyed Hassan Nasrallah in his latest speech a day after the operation verified that there are no red lines anymore and the current phase of deterrence makes the whole occupied territories as a target for Hezbollah. This is not the first time for Seyed Hassan Nasrallah to keep his promises, and Israelis know that very well. Thus, they know from now on, they cannot commit an assault without getting a response, unless they want to take risks to face new surprises, or to enter a war they cannot handle.

We are probably coming to a new stage of defensive equation to respond to any new Israeli assaults on Syria, which means that any offensive may get response from any of the axis parties.

Q: How do you view Hezbollah in terms of its defense policies?

A: Since the establishment of Hezbollah in 1982, it was established for a cause, to face the Israeli occupation who invaded Lebanon’s capital Beirut and occupied one third of the country’s territories. Form the beginning they took responsibility of defending Lebanon against any aggression.

Israel is a military entity, not a civil society; because they all serve at the occupation army, at least once each year. In addition, their state was established to protect their army, not the opposite. Although Hezbollah was aware of the composition of Israeli community, they do not target civilians for ethical law they built their ideology on.

Q: As ISIL was existing only a few kilometers away from Israeli forces, they would target Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah fighters. How do you view Israel’s military policies?

A: Israel was considering itself as an unbeatable state, and this illusion got shattered by the defeat they faced in 2006’s war against Hezbollah. Then, they had to change the way of functioning. Later, proxy wars became preferred for Israel over direct battles, and they depend on tearing societies apart and erase any values that lead to consider Israel as the enemy, as well as dividing countries without losing any soldiers and avoiding battles inside the occupied soil. This strategy is related to the weakness of the Israeli society, which cannot afford being shelled and staying in shelters, and it was proven in the war of July 2006, when public pressure was assessed on the Israeli government to go to a ceasefire.

They created and supported Daesh (ISIL) and other radical terrorist groups as a tool in the hand of Israel, and that was documented in many places, especially in Southern Syria, where the borders of the occupied Golan Heights were opened for the terrorists who were in control of the parallel territories to receive their support (funds, ammunitions, weapons and logistics) and to get the health care. Their main role was to destroy the state of Syria, weaken the Syrian Army and topple not President Assad as a person, but to topple his orientation of supporting resistance and cutting Syria’s ties with resistance factions and Iran.

Will Hamas return to Damascus?

A few days after visiting Moscow last month, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, headed to Tehran with a bigger and higher-level delegation. The visit lasted several days, hinting at its importance, the greatest indicator of its significance being the number of Hamas officials in the delegation and their meeting with the Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei and other senior officials.

The replacement of Hezbollah mediation by a personal delegation also suggests that Hamas is attempting to re-establish relations with the Syrian regime, an ally of Iran. Is Hamas planning to return to Damascus by normalising its relations with the regime?

It seems natural to ask this question, as there was apparently a close relationship between Hamas, Damascus and Tehran before the Syrian revolution. It is also a natural given the wave of normalisation of relations recently between a number of countries and the Assad regime in Syria.

It should be noted that a number of Hamas officials, both political and military, believe that leaving the Syrian capital was very costly for the movement on a political, economic and security level. Hamas is currently at a loss because neither Qatar nor Turkey are able to host its officials openly, as Damascus did before the start of the conflict there in 2011. Diplomatic statements by the movement have always claimed that leaving Syria did not affect the course of its work.

Hamas has been negotiating with the Syrian regime through Tehran since 2017 in order to return to Damascus, and based on the movement’s current political and security situation, it is said to be keen on going back to Syria. However, it seems that the regime of Bashar Al-Assad is being difficult about the matter, as it believes that Hamas has not supported it enough during the crisis, and thus did not “pay it back” properly. Hence, it seems that even if the regime is convinced about the return of Hamas — or is “persuaded” to be so by Iran — it is difficult to imagine things being as they were pre-2011.

In terms of timing, the geopolitical situation in Syrian is based on the rearrangement of all regional and international agendas in a manner conducive to it having influence equal to that of the opposition forces. This implicitly generates “geographical allocation” in which Hamas seeks to benefit from Tehran’s share. In what some observers describe as “political realism”, the movement is trying to return to Syria on the back of Tehran’s influence to ensure a suitable location for its ambitions to be realised.

Despite the Assad regime’s resentment towards Hamas and its position on the Syrian conflict, Tehran desperately needs a strong relationship with the Palestinian movement, not least so that it can still promote itself as being at the apex of the “axis of resistance”.

Moreover, Hamas’s pre-emptive step is being taken in the context of its concerns that Russia might give in to Israel’s demands for Hamas to be prevented from returning to Syria. This may happen if Iran’s influence in Syria is reduced, so Hamas is seeking to achieve what it needs before it is too late.

The visit to Tehran also addressed the current confrontation with the US in order to rescue whatever Palestinian rights might be possible in the face of the “deal of the century”. Hamas believes that cooperation with Russia and Iran will create an important axis to challenge US hegemony around the world. Another issue discussed was the mechanism for maintaining Iran’s support for the movement given the possibility of this declining due to US sanctions imposed on Tehran.

In conclusion, Hamas and the “axis of resistance” have mutual interests that prompt them to seek to maintain strong relations with each other. Hamas needs financial, political and geographic support in light of the harassment that the movement and the Palestinian cause are subjected to, while the “axis of resistance” cannot succeed in promoting itself as such without having a good relationship with the major Palestinian resistance group. On the basis of the mutual benefits available, therefore, the return to an open and strong relationship, as was the case in the past, is not all that difficult to imagine.

Survey on resistance Advancement strategies During Hamas Delegation Trip to Iran

By: Hossein Ruyvaran

The trip of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to Iran highly remarkable at the current circumstance. The delegation was led by Saleh al-Arawi a deputy from Hamas political office. During their stay they met with some Iranian officials.

Currently American support to Israel has reached its high most and they intended to bring changes to current developments of the region in order to eliminate the esprit of Palestinian liberty. Before this the American policy was to control the Palestinian side through compromise policies by the PA, but currently they are trying to change the bilateral discussions into multilateral discussion and set the course in favor for Israel. In other words Americans sought Israel’s favor by adding the Saudis into the discussion and let Saudis to extract what Israel couldn’t reach as an agreement with the Palestinians, Israel’s permanent existence had always been Israel, top topic in talks.

With the beginning of Trump’s administration the task was on agenda, the Americans changed the Arab view towards Israel, and changed the Arab definitions over the brutal regime of Israel, this way they managed to bring similarities to both sides and the administration did the most to define Iran as the common threat for both the Arabs and Israelis.

The above conditions, highlight the necessity of Resistance groups’ cooperation and that’s why Hamas delegation trip to Iran makes the trip so important.

The Bahrain conference in which Trump’s aid tried to present parts of the deal of century failed, because not even the PA representatives attended the conference, this situation brought advancements for the resistance front.

It’s a top priority for all resistance groups to maintain unity and follow up a strengthened cooperation, Iran plays a major role here, the Islamic Republic is doing its most to bring order to the unity, its discussing issues between Hamas and Syrian Government, also it’s necessary to discuss strategies for bringing arms to the resistance groups in the west bank.

Axis of Evil lost control of the Middle East

Shaykh Khalid al-Mulla

Rasa – The head of Iraq’s Union of Islamic Scholars said, “The Axis of Evil lost control
of the ‎countries after facing the Islamic Resistance Front headed by Ayatollah Khamenei.”

RNA – In an exclusive interview with Rasa News Agency, Shaykh Khalid al-Mulla, the head of ‎Iraq’s Union of Islamic Scholars stated, “The Axis of Evil seeks to destroy roots of Islam in ‎the region, specially the Shi’ah Islam, so that the Zionist regime can be able to dominate a ‎humiliated Middle East.”‎

The Iraqi Sunni cleric added, “After facing the Islamic Resistance Front headed by the ‎Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Khamenei] in the region, the evil ‎countries lost control of the regional countries and that’s why some Arab countries have re-‎established their embassies in Syria in order to reach back to their previous situation and ‎start a new plan against Islam with the help of the Zionist regime.”‎

Mentioning “the diplomatic victory in Syria,” he noted the relationship between Riyadh’s ‎defeat in Syria and the “Deal of the Century” saying, “Saudi Arabia is the designer of the ‎‎‘Deal of the Century.’ They’ve started dismissing some officials like Adil al-Jubayr and ‎appointing some other officials following their defeat in their foreign affairs’ policies, ‎especially in Syria. They’ve done so in order to take stronger steps toward reaching the ‘Deal ‎of the Century’ regarding Palestine.”‎

Shaykh al-Mulla stated, “Omar al-Bashir [President of Sudan] is a tool in the hands of the ‎Saudis. He wants to coordinate the Syrian case and destroy the Islamic identity of the Arab ‎countries with the help of the Zionist regime. But the Muslim and vigilant people of Sudan will ‎not allow him to do so. They will not allow Donald Trump’s recent speech regarding the ‎destruction of the Islamic identity in the region for the purpose of American domination over ‎the region to be realized.”‎