Hezbollah to further support Syria in Daesh fight: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Jamal Wakim, a professor at the Lebanese International University, about Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah saying that the assassination of its top military commander Mustafa Badreddine by Takfiri terrorist groups in Syria will boost the movement’s resolve to fight the extremist militants.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: If we were to look at the situation right now, I am almost certain, your opinion obviously matters, that there is going to be reaction coming from Hezbollah and its fighters. What do you think that would be?

Wakim: Well first of all I believe that the killing of Mustafa Badreddine was a severe blow to the armed resistance in Lebanon because Mustafa Badreddine has been a top leader in Hezbollah since 1982. But I believe that the experience of Hezbollah had taught him to prepare other leaders to substitute the ones who fall in battle.  

Well I believe that for the time being the reaction of Hezbollah will be to further support the Syrian army and the Syrian government in its fight and struggle against its opponents but I also believe that there will be steps by Hezbollah to better control and to better adapt to the Syrian arena especially that this was an open arena and it was new for Hezbollah, that is why we saw many top leaders falling in Syria like Samir Qantar before Mustafa Badreddine and like Jihad Mughniyeh and some other leaders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Press TV: Well based on some media reports the way that there was intelligence that it is going to perhaps reveal details behind how Badreddine was killed is going to actually outline the way that Hezbollah is going to react. Many are deducting that there is an Israeli hand in this. Do you think that is the case and of course again looking at the way that Hezbollah is going to react does that not also depend on some coordination that should happen between let’s say Hezbollah, let’s say Russia or the Syrian army perhaps?

Wakim: Well I believe that Israel has a stake in the killing of Mustafa Badreddine because Hezbollah has been very interested in trying to expand the frontier, the front line with Israel into the Syrian Golan Heights and this explains why for example Samir Qantar was killed before Mustafa Badreddine and before them Jihad Mughniyeh and other top commanders of Hezbollah were killed in Quneitra.

So definitely Israel has a stake in the killing of Mustafa Badreddine but I believe also that there are local Syrian elements that were implicated in this, giving information to the Israeli side and to other powers that are fighting against Hezbollah. There were information that there might be a Saudi hand in the killing of Mustafa Badreddine especially that Saudi Arabia is implicated in the support of militant groups in Syria fighting against the Syrian regime and in the past few months it was labeling Hezbollah as a terrorist group and media supported by Saudi Arabia labeled the killing of Mustafa Badreddine as the downfall of another terrorist. This is what Al Arabiya for example said and many other Saudi media.

So this is a very complicated operation and I believe that there are many hands at stake but definitely Israel is one side implicated in the killing of Mustafa Badreddine.

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