Leader of Hezbollah Nasrallah will deliver address as planned despite the aftermath of the fatal attack on senior Hamas leader
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, will make his third statement since October 7.
The speech was supposed to honor Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief Qasem Soleimani, who passed away in 2020 after a US airstrike, but it was given the day after a top Hamas commander, Saleh Al-Arouri, was murdered in a strike in Beirut.
For background, Hezbollah is an Islamist movement supported by Iran that possesses some of the strongest paramilitary groups in the Middle East. With its primary base on the border between Israel and Lebanon, the group has the potential to play a major role in the Hamas-Israel fight and ignite a larger regional conflict.
Before October 7, Nasrallah had not made a public speech in person since a month-long conflict broke out between Israel and Lebanon in 2006.
In his first public address since 2006, Nasrallah commended Hamas for its October 7 strikes on Israel and urged for a truce, noting that the attacks were entirely organized and carried out by Hamas. His remarks coincided with growing hostilities between Israel and his potent armed organization, which is supported by Iran, raising fears of a possible wider regional conflict.
