Hezbollah chief pays respect to slain Syrian officials

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday expressed condolences over the deaths of three top Syrian officials in a blast that rocked the National Security headquarters in Damascus, while stressing that Syria was always a "real military supporter of the resistance against Israel in Lebanon and Palestine.
The bombing killed defence minister General Daoud Rajha, Presidet Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime's Crisis Cell in charge of dealing with the uprising, Syria's state-run TV said.
Nasrallah described the three slain officials as "martyrs" and "comrades-in-arms," in a televised speech marking the anniversary of the July 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
"We reiterate our call for preserving Syria. The only solution is to accept dialogue. As we feel the loss of today's martyrs, we extend our condolences to their families and to the Syrian leadership," said Nasrallah.
"Daoud Rajha, Assef Shawkat and Hassan Turkmani represented Syria, which supported the resistance, while those who criticise Syria today were siding with the enemy back then," he noted.
"These martyrs were comrades-in-arms on the path of the conflict with the Israeli enemy and we are confident that the Arab Syrian Army, which managed to overcome unbearable tribulations in the past, has enough determination to be able to go on and crush the hopes of the enemies," Hezbollah's leader added.
Nasrallah said in recent years a new military strategy was implemented in Syria.
"Syria has become a military force that poses a threat against Israel, especially regarding the missiles and the progress of the military industry," he added.
Highlighting the support offered by Damascus to Hezbollah and to the Palestinian group Hamas, Nasrallah said "Syria was not only a passageway for transferring weapons to the resistance, but also a real military supporter."
"For example, the most important missiles that were fired at Haifa and central Israel were Syrian made, and were offered by Syria to the resistance," he noted
Nasrallah accused Washington of seeking to "destroy the Syrian army" in the wake of the July 2006 war.
"They sought after the July 2006 war to destroy the Syrian army. The United States took advantage of the rightful demands for the Syrian people, prevented dialogue and turned Syria into a war zone because the objective is to destroy and fragment Syria, like they did in Iraq," Nasrallah said.
Referring to the Damascus attack on top officials, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General said "Israel should be happy today because main pillars within the [Syrian] army were killed, and Israel always wanted to deprive Syria of having a strong army.
"Let us think a bit about what's happening in Syria. [US Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton went to Egypt to reassure the Israelis about the Egyptian stance and told the Egyptians 'we are willing to support you if you keep the peace treaty with Israel,'" Nasrallah noted.
Turning to the conflict with Israel, Nasrallah reassured his supporters to be "very confident that amid all this noise there is a resistance and resistance fighters who are working night and day on the issue of the conflict with the enemy and they are not being distracted by any shouting from here or there.”
Addressing Israel, Nasrallah added: "We know that the enemy is working night and day to gather information about our rocket launchers and I call on them to draw lessons from their mistakes," adding, "We know what your first strike will be like, and we promise you a big surprise and of course I want the Lebanese people and all the Arab people to be very confident of the resistance's capabilities,"
"Our fate is neither defeat nor failure like most Arab rulers claim, our fate is to prevail. The same way we achieved a great victory in 2000 and 2006, we are capable of achieving a greater victory in any coming war," he vowed.