RIYADH: Lebanon’s Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qasim appeared in a televised speech on Monday, telling Lebanese to be “reassured, victory is our ally, we need a bit of patience”
In his speech Qassem vowed to fight on, saying the group was prepared for a long war in his first speech since the leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed, and added that the group would choose a new secretary-general based on the mechanism within Hezbollah.
Qassem’s speech on Monday comes days after Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on Friday.
Qassem added that despite the killing of Hezbollah’s top military commanders over the past months, Hezbollah was now relying on new commanders.
“Israel was not able to affect our (military) capabilities,” Qassem said.
“There are deputy commanders and there are replacements in case a commander is wounded in any post.”
Israel has in recent days escalated its attacks on Lebanon and the intensifying Israeli bombardment over two weeks has killed a string of top Hezbollah officials.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader vowed to continue fighting Israel and said the militant group was prepared for a long war after much of its top command was wiped out, including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
In his speech Qassem said that if Israel decided to launch a ground offensive, Hezbollah fighters are ready to fight and defend Lebanon.
