A high-ranking official from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement says the United States is desperately seeking to change the Arab nation’s identity, but all such attempts will fail in the face of popular resistance and steadfastness.
Vice President of the Executive Council of Hezbollah Sheikh Ali Damoush made the remarks during a ceremony in Deir Qanoun En Nahr municipality in southern Lebanon on Saturday evening.
He said a number of candidates running for office in the forthcoming parliamentary elections are not concerned about Lebanon’s economic and financial crisis, and are instead trying frantically to confront Hezbollah as ordered by the US embassy in Beirut.
“Enemies mobilized all their media and political capacities to tarnish the image of Hezbollah, and pit the Lebanese nation against the resistance movement. They, however, failed and it was Hezbollah that surprised anyone in the face of the economic war and the amount of services it provided to ordinary people in the fields of foodstuff, healthcare and fuel supplies,” Sheikh Damoush pointed out.
The top Hezbollah official went on to say that Washington wants to change Lebanon's identity and plunge it in a state of weakness and inability in order to dominate it.
“That is why the United States is putting pressure on the Lebanese nation and keeping people hungry. It wants to bring them to their knees and advance its own plots. It is, therefore, supporting certain groups in Lebanon to change the face of a resilient, strong and patriotic Lebanon,” he said.
Sheikh Damoush said, “Hezbollah wants a strong, independent and free Lebanon, which is not dependent on outsiders, and where freedom of expression is not at stake. Washington cannot control Beirut as it does in the case of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.”
“All attempts by the United States and its allies to change the face of a resilient Lebanon will fail in the face of the prudence, steadfastness and commitment of our nation,” the top Hezbollah official said.
On January 30, Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of Hezbollah, said, "All indications are that the parliamentary elections will take place on time.”
Hezbollah opinion polls across Lebanon showed "the results of the election will be close to the make-up of the current parliament, with slight changes that do not affect the general make-up," he said.
Hezbollah's adversaries hope to overturn the majority won by the group and allies including President Michel Aoun's Christian Free Patriotic Movement in 2018.
Since late 2019, Lebanon has been mired in a deep financial crisis that has caused the Lebanese pound to lose around 90 percent of its value to the US dollar and led its banking system to collapse, plunging the bulk of Lebanese into poverty.
The economic and financial crisis is mostly linked to the sanctions that the United States and its allies have imposed on Lebanon as well as foreign intervention in the Arab nation’s domestic affairs.