It’s always difficult to express an opinion on an event such as the funeral of a man of Hajj Sayed Hassan Nasrallah’s stature.
The man was larger than life, and his legacy surpasses that of a mere individual, even if his life path might place him above the average.
There are many Nasrallahs.
Firstly, the late Secretary General of the Party of God was a man devoted to his family. How could it be otherwise. His life path was that of someone who fought for a better future for his family. But Nasrallah was also an exceptional spiritual being. He surrendered himself completely to the struggle against injustice in all its forms. For him, the Resistance represented the embodiment of the spirit left to his followers by Iman Hussein, and he never deviated from this path. Loyalty, courage, sacrifice and dignity were the pillars of his existence.
It is impossible to overstate the extent to which Hezbollah’s successes were rooted in the Seyed’s extraordinary personality: his friendliness, charisma, inner goodness, eloquence (his speeches will probably be the subject of a book), his calm in the face of adversity, his sense of communication, his strategic acuity?
Hassan Nasrallah also had an unshakeable love for Lebanon
He understood more than anyone else that the Land of Cedars, by virtue of its geography, was at the heart of all covetousness on the part of outside powers. In this respect, he had succeeded in having the Party of God accepted as one of the fundamental elements of Lebanon’s identity following the invasion of the country in 1982 by the Zionist army; an event inextricably linked to the birth of the movement he was to preside over for more than 30 years, following the assassination (already) of his predecessor His Eminence Abbas Al-Mousawi in 1992.
The People, Army, Resistance triptych came to define the backbone of Lebanon’s political landscape to this day.
Nasrallah’s enemies often tried to portray the Movement as a threat to Lebanon’s sovereignty, and Nasrallah himself as a mere agent guided by Tehran. In my opinion, this narrative was obliterated by one of the Seyed’s greatest achievements when, in 2006, he signed the Nabatiyeh Accords with the party of Lebanon’s former President and the country’s leading Christian formation, General Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement. Aoun had himself been born in Nabatiyeh, and so had grown up with his fellow Shiite countrymen. He was more than anyone aware of the community’s historic condition as sub-citizens until the advent of Hezbollah.
Nasrallah and Aoun had developed an almost filial relationship, and their respective backgrounds were more similar than one might imagine. They were both fervent Lebanese patriots.
The Nabatiyeh Accords took the entire Lebanese political class by surprise. The betrayals of certain Christian groups still weighed heavily on the country’s collective conscience, and had prevented the emergence of a national union for over thirty years.
Aoun’s election to the Presidency in 2016 (with Hezbollah’s votes) enshrined the spirit of the Nabatiyeh Accords, even if expectations in terms of economic policy and the fight against corruption were largely disappointing.
Aoun resisted Babada’s constant pressure from the West to abandon his companionship with Nasralla, even as temptations multiplied through loan offers from the International Monetary Fund.
Hajj Nasralla is above all a companion of the Resistance
He rose to fame following the complete liberation of Lebanon from the Zionist army of occupation in May 2000, after 8 years of fierce fighting.
Images of the liberation of Kiam prison were shown around the world, becoming a symbol of the sacrifices made by the Lebanese Resistance to regain the country’s sovereignty.
THE 33-DAY WAR
In July 2006, the Zionist entity tried to take its revenge, backed by American neo-conservatives.
Since the Lebanese army had never had the opportunity to equip itself to confront the aggression, Hezbollah was forced to engage the aggressor in a guerrilla warfare display that defied the predictions of military experts, inflicting such heavy losses that they led to the shameful withdrawal of the occupying regime from southern Lebanon.
The carcasses of Zionist tanks can still be seen at the Mleta memorial for those wishing to understand the intensity of the fighting.
LOYALTY TO THE AXIS OF RESISTANCE
Following the events teleguided by Turkey and the West to overthrow the government of Bashar Al-Assad in March 2011, Syria as the central pillar of the Axis of Resistance was in danger of faltering.
Nasrallah immediately understood the gravity of the situation and decided to deploy Radwan’s elite units to the Cham country. Until Russia intervened at the end of 2015, the Lebanese Resistance forces succeeded, alongside the Syrian army, in repelling the Takfirist hordes and protecting Christian communities from the massacres perpetrated by the followers of Yazed.
This noble undertaking found its symbolism in the liberation of the ancient Aramaic village of Maaloula.
Captured and briefly occupied by the forces of Al-Nosra (a branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria whose former leader now “presides” over the destiny of what remains of the Assads’ wonderful multi-confessional Syria), Maaloula was the scene of horrors committed by the barbarians before being liberated by the Syrian army and Hezbollah after almost nine months of occupation.
THE LAST STAND
Following the start of the war of extermination initiated by the Tel Aviv regime in October 2023, the Lebanese Resistance honored the new strategy adopted by the Axis consisting of assisting one of its components whenever it is the object of aggression.
By providing assistance to the Palestinian resistance in a logic of gradual escalation, Nasarallah succeeded in giving the necessary space to the war of attrition responsible for the political delegitimization of the Netanyahu regime in the eyes of the whole world.
ARNAUD DEVELAY is a lawyer specializing in international criminal law. He began his career in 2005 under the mentorship of former US Attorney General Ramsay CLARK, defending former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his companions. He subsequently participated in the defense of Ilitch RAMIREZ SANCHES (CARLOS) , advised certain figures of the Gilets Jaunes Movement, Canal historique. He spent two years in the Syrian Arab Republic, reporting on the deleterious effects of the CESAR sanctions regime. He is the author of “FOREIGN ENTANGLEMENTS: UKRAINE, BIDEN AND THE FRACTURED AMERICAN POLITICAL CONSENSUS.