The Iran-backed dictatorship of Bashar Assad in Syria was the first state to address the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, using the opportunity to mourn the head of the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shiite terrorist organization, confirmed the death on Saturday of leader Hassan Nasrallah, a mass murderer, following a massive Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombardment of Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. Hezbollah has targeted Israel with terrorist attacks for decades – including the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the Western Hemisphere prior to 2001, the bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires – but in the past year has dramatically escalated its activities.
Following the massacre of Israeli civilians by fellow Iran-backed jihadist terror organization Hamas on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah launched a campaign against residents of northern Israel, displacing tens of thousands and limiting the Israeli government’s ability to protect the region. The strikes on its Beirut compound on Friday were a response to Hezbollah’s terrorism in northern Israel.
“Israel’s war is not with you. It’s with Hezbollah,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address to the Lebanese people last week. “For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage. Those rockets and missiles are aimed directly at our cities, directly at our citizens.”
As an Iranian proxy, Hezbollah has long enjoyed the support of the Assad regime, which relied heavily on Iranian and Russian support to remain in power through a decade of civil war. Syrian Foreign Minister Bassam Sabbagh used his address at the United Nations to mourn Nasrallah and Hezbollah’s defeat, as well as call for more opposition to Israel’s self-defense operations at the already notoriously anti-Israel venue.
Sabbagh accused Israel, despite its clarifications that it is targeting Hezbollah, of waging war against “our brotherly Lebanon” by attempting to neutralize the threat of Hezbollah.
“Two weeks ago, the Israeli occupation authorities committed an unprecedented crime against Lebanese by using the means of communication as a tool to kill unarmed civilians in a collective manner,” Sabbagh claimed, blaming Israel for the sudden explosion of hundreds of pagers, walkie-talkies, solar panels, and other electronics in the possession of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. Israel has not taken responsibility for the blasts, which killed at least 37 people, including top Hezbollah terrorists, but many reports have blamed Israeli intelligence agents for planting bombs in the devices.
More recently, Sabbagh continued, Israel “targeted the southern suburb of Beirut with a treacherous and cowardly aggression destroying an entire residential block using tons of explosive bombs to assassinate Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.”
The Syrian diplomat credited Nasrallah with having, “for more than three decades, led an honorable Lebanese resistance against the Israeli occupation.”
“This large-scale Israeli aggression, which is unfettered by any restrictions and limitations, is pushing the region to a brink of a dangerous escalation and confrontation whose consequences cannot be predicted,” Sabbagh claimed.
Contrary to Sabbagh’s depiction of Nasrallah as an “honorable” agent for political change, the Hezbollah chief was responsible for decades of Hezbollah attacks on innocent civilians around the world, including hundreds of Americans who died in Hezbollah attacks.
“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror,” outgoing American President Joe Biden said in a statement on Saturday following confirmation of his elimination. “His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.”
Bashar Assad’s Syria has long maintained friendly relations with Hezbollah and other Shiite terrorist groups, relying on them for help against mostly Sunni rebel groups during much of the Syrian Civil War. The Syrian regime has also reportedly functioned as a critical diplomatic liaison for Hezbollah – for example, allegedly brokering a meeting in Damascus between Nasrallah and then Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro in 2007 to facilitate the illicit issuance of legitimate Venezuelan passports to Hezbollah terrorists of Middle East origin.
Elsewhere in his speech, Sabbagh accused Israel of “targeting vital civilian facilities, residential buildings, and even diplomatic premises” in Syria – an apparent reference to the bombing in April of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which resulted in the killing of top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) terrorist Mohammad Reza Zahedi. The IRGC, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, is a formal arm of the Iranian military.
Sabbagh also condemned sanctions on Russia, Cuba, and North Korea, and declared the Assad regime’s support for the “One-China Principle,” the false Beijing claim to control the sovereign state of Taiwan. He also took special note of the alliance with Iran.
“Syria expresses once again its full support to the Islamic Republic of Iran and its legitimate right to defend its national security and [to] the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” the diplomat said, “and we commend Iran’s constructive and responsible approach in this regard.”
