Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech on Friday marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Resistance Support Association, a charity used to raise funds for Hezbollah.
Nasrallah accused Israel and the United States of waging a campaign against Hezbollah not only on the battlefield but also on the economic level, in an attempt to inflict severe financial damage on Hezbollah.
"The Israelis do not believe in their defense systems and are afraid, and that is why they have set up US-made defense systems. The Israeli army is afraid of war against us and they know why. We'll break them on the battlefield. No advanced missile defense systems will help," boasted the Hezbollah leader, according to Israel Hayom.
He also discussed Britain's decision to outlaw the political wing of Hezbollah, saying, "The outlawing of Hezbollah's political wing in Britain is not the end of the story, and we believe that other countries will take the same step. This is the fruit of the fear of Israel and the United States that have suffered defeats against us on the battlefield and this fear motivates them to fight us economically."
Nasrallah called on Muslims in the world to continue donating to the Islamic Resistance Support Association and said, "Hezbollah is in an economic war. They are placing us on the terror list and taking punitive measures against us, but we are strong and we will break anyone who threatens our sovereignty. We are proud and determined to defend our peoples and nations. This economic war fought by Hezbollah is directed not only against us but also against Iran and Syria - what America and Israel and their allies have not achieved in battle they are trying to achieve through economic war.”
The Hezbollah leader in January broke a lengthy silence with a television interview in which he vowed that the group would continue its digging of tunnels into Israeli territory despite Israel’s Operation Northern Shield to clamp down on those tunnels.
Nasrallah's uncharacteristically lengthy silence caused speculation about the reason behind it. Lebanese media reported at one point that Nasrallah was hospitalized after an apparent heart attack, with some reports claiming he is also fighting cancer.
However, reports that Nasrallah is sick were rejected by Hossein Amirabdollahian, assistant to Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who called such an assertion the "biggest lie of the new year.”
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)