Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem spoke Saturday night for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.
"The enemy wanted to eliminate the opposition which stands in its way of expanding into the entire area," he said. At the same time, Qassem admitted that his terror group lost its weapons supply route from Iran through Syria, but said that the "opposition will continue regardless."
According to Qassem, Israel did not succeed in "breaking Hezbollah" during the fighting.
"The enemy understood that the horizon for fighting Hezbollah was blocked, so they reached an agreement," he explained. "Hezbollah was victorious because the enemy did not achieve its central goal: To eliminate Hezbollah and return the settlers home without an agreement."
He added, "The goal of the agreement achieved [with Israel] is to stop the strikes, not to eliminate Hezbollah. This agreement is the implementation of Resolution 1701and is connected only to the area south of the Litani. We were patient with the hundreds of Israeli violations, in order to aid the implementation of the agreement and not present an obstacle -so that those responsible will be forced to bear responsibility."
Qassem also said that Israel "Destroyed all of the abilities of the Syrian army, using the excuse of self-defense and concern for the future, with American backing. They want to destroy the entire area."
However, he admitted that Hezbollah "lost its military supply route through Syria. The opposition is flexible and what is important is continuity. We do not believe that what is happening in Syria will affect Lebanon, and we hope that Syria will be stable, in accordance with what the people want." He also said that he hopes that the new Syrian regime "will see Israel as an enemy and not normalize relations with it."