A long-awaited speech. This Friday, November 3, in the early afternoon, Hassan Nasrallah will break his silence for the first time since the beginning of the war between Hamas and Israel. The speech is eagerly awaited in Lebanon and throughout the region, where he is expected to determine whether his powerful Hezbollah party will engage Lebanon in the conflict.
Leader of the Lebanese Shiite movement, Hassan Nasrallah is one of the most powerful men in the Middle East, where he has been at the forefront for more than 30 years. Considered a political leader in Lebanon because his party has seats in parliament, he is considered a terrorist leader in other countries including Israel, which Hezbollah wants to annihilate.
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Secretary General and religious leader of Hezbollah since 1992, Hassan Nasrallah joined the Amal movement, a Shiite political and paramilitary organization, at the age of 15, when civil war broke out in Lebanon in 1975. After rising through the ranks of the movement, this child of the Lebanese civil war joined Hezbollah in 1982, after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. This new Lebanese Shiite organization, supported by Iran, wanted to "liberate the country from Israeli occupation through armed struggle."
Considered one of the founders of Hezbollah
Considered one of the founders of Hezbollah, it was only in 1992, following the death of leader Abbas Moussaoui killed by an Israeli missile strike, that he became the leader of the party, which immediately became a serious opponent of the Israeli army in southern Lebanon. Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah participated in the first post-war elections and won fifteen deputies in parliament.
Under his leadership, the conflict with Israel reached a fever pitch. In 1996, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres decided to intervene with raids on Hezbollah bases in response to the launching of rockets towards the northern regions of the country. After leading the group to political responsibility, Nasrallah transformed it into an armed militia entrenched in its own territories. Described as a state within a state, the Hezbollah terror group has an arsenal equal to, if not greater than, that of the Lebanese army, thanks to Iran's support.
In 2000, when Israeli troops left southern Lebanon, which they had occupied since 1982, Nasrallah claimed victory on behalf of Hezbollah and skyrocketed his approval ratings. In 2006, he became the charismatic hero of millions of Arabs and Muslims after standing up to the Israeli army for more than 30 days and claiming a supposed strategic success against Israel. Although more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians lost their lives during this period, Hezbollah emerged victorious and Nasrallah further asserted his authority.
An increasingly powerful armed force
A political and religious authority figure, he has been living in a bunker since 2006 and his speeches are increasingly listened to in the Arab world. In 2013, Hezbollah's involvement in Syria to support the government of Bashar al-Assad strengthened its experience on the ground. During the war in Syria, his militia proved to be one of the best-prepared armies in the entire Middle East.
But after the uprisings of the Arab Spring, it became a little more divisive and was accused of corruption and blackmail into violence and became unpopular, especially within Christian circles.
While his speech on Friday, November 3, is already set to be virulent against Israel, it remains to be seen whether he will openly announce whether his party will engage Lebanon in the conflict that has already claimed thousands of lives. At a time when Lebanon is plunged into a serious economic and political crisis, nothing is less certain...