by naharnet — Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah noted Sunday that Lebanese media outlets have “distorted and falsified” remarks about Lebanon by a top Iranian general. “He did not say that we are a frontline for Iran but rather a frontline for confronting the Israeli occupation,” Nasrallah said in a televised address marking the first anniversary of the assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. “Some excel in falsification and the distortion of statements,” Nasrallah lamented. The remarks by Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, have stirred controversy in Lebanon, drawing several responses including from President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement, who are key allies of Iran-backed Hizbullah. “All the missile capabilities that Gaza and Lebanon possess were achieved through Iran’s support. They are the frontline for the confrontation,” Hajizadeh said in remarks to al-Manar TV.

Remembering Soleimani, Nasrallah said that “in Lebanon, we are concerned with thanking and appreciating the person who stood by us ever since the Israeli invasion.” “I ask the Lebanese people who supported Lebanon in liberating its land? Who stood by the Lebanese and protected and defended them? Who supplied them with arms to achieve the 2000 liberation?” he added. “Since the year 2000, the resistance has been protecting Lebanon against the Israeli enemy through the golden equation,” Nasrallah went on to say. Stressing that “Iran’s support for the resistance in Lebanon is not conditional,” Hizbullah’s leader pointed out that it is aimed at “defending Lebanon’s land and sovereignty.” “We are among the must independent resistance movements in history,” he said. He added: “If there is a chance to benefit from the oil and gas, this will only happen through the blessings and missiles of the resistance.”

As for the possible retaliation to Soleimani’s 2020 killing in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq, Nasrallah said: “Some suppose that Iran will rely on its so-called proxies and friends in retaliating to Soleimani’s assassination but this is not true… Iran is not weak, Iran is strong and it can retaliate at the appropriate time.”