Hezbollah is fast losing popularity
![Hezbollah is fast losing popularity Hezbollah is fast losing popularity](https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/2015/05/24/file-24-Abdul%20Rahman%20Rashed_131.jpg?itok=EEds_5L2)
However this time, Nasrallah’s angry and threatening statements were not directed against his usual rivals. They are directed against Shiites in Lebanon. These statements reveal the extent of internal disputes and expose the increasing criticism against him, after a prolonged Syrian war and after the expansion of battlefields, which Lebanon’s Shiites are required to fight in order to meet the demands of Iran’s warlords. A few days before this angry speech, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, had visited Beirut to deliver a message to Nasrallah.
This message was probably behind the Hezbollah chief’s frustration and the call to further mobilize his party’s ranks. It’s also probably why he made these threats to those who oppose him.
Nasrallah’s speech reveals divisions and disputes within the Shiite community, which had previously stood as a symbol of obedience where there was a majority in support of him and an opposing silent minority. However, now after the party’s increased human losses in Syria and Iraq, objections seem to be threatening his status — unlike in the past when no one dared to question his actions or decisions.
Some may say Hezbollah is not the only party drowning in the moving sands, as there are struggles in the entire region. This is true. However, the difference is that other parties were destined to fight because the war is happening in their own territories; Hezbollah is fighting in Syria alongside the Assad regime on behalf of Iran. Hezbollah members have thus been turned into mercenaries who are brought from various countries to fight far away from home just to appease Iran and uphold its commitments.
As time passed and as more Hezbollah members died — although most casualties are not announced — Hezbollah exhausted its excuses with the first of them being that it is fighting in Syria to “defend sacred shrines.”
When it was later revealed that most of its members were falling in areas, which are far from those shrines, the Shiite party came up with the excuse that it has launched a preemptive war to defend Lebanon. “If we hadn’t fought in Aleppo, Homs and Damascus, we would have fought in (Lebanon’s) Baalbek, Hermel, Ghaziyeh and other areas,” Nasrallah said. Of course, it’s illogical to go to war in a large country to prevent a war in your own country.
Hezbollah’s participation in the war in Syria with his extremist Shiite members brought thousands of extremist Sunnis to the frontline. The war in Syria thus turned into a Shiite-Sunni-Alawite battle.
Hezbollah’s war in Syria is an Iranian war, and a lost one too. Hezbollah’s fighters will later see that Tehran will have to sell them. I mean Iran will make compromises at their expense to take either of two paths: Provide a safe exit from Syria, i.e. a complete defeat, or accept a solution in which the Syrian regime’s head exits power — a solution which both Iranian and Syrian regimes rejected resulting in the death of thousands of people. Therefore, Hezbollah does not have a compelling excuse to fight in Syria. The Iranians are fighting there for the sake of gaining influence and due to their obsession to rule the region. Hezbollah’s participation alongside the Iranians in the war will bring about two disasters. The first is that Hezbollah will suffer human losses, which will be much more than the combined losses suffered during its wars with Israel in the past 30 years. The second is that this participation alongside Iran will attract extremist groups to Lebanon — groups that threaten all parties and ignite war there.
The defeats, the corpses, the wounds, the broken promises and the ongoing war all show that the Hezbollah command’s only choice is to respond to Tehran’s demands until its last fighter. In his speech, Nasrallah called on his followers to support him amid the criticism, doubts and objections. “Now it’s time for mobilization. Everyone can participate even by just speaking out. Whoever has credibility among people (must speak out) and contribute to this mobilization. Scholars must speak out. Those who have a martyred child must also speak out.”
Dangerously, Nasrallah did not conceal his future plan. “In the next phase, we may announce general mobilization (that applies) to all people. I am saying we may fight everywhere.”
“Everywhere” means sending more men to fight in Iraq and Yemen! And since he knows the Shiite community is increasingly rejecting him, he threatened those who oppose him.
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