Hassan Nasrallah: "We have never sought to be in ministries of governments. All we have been saying to the successive governments – and we still say it today – is the following: Brothers, we are a resistance movement. We have dedicated ourselves to the defense of the country, to the defense of the honor of the Lebanese and the Arabs, to enabling the Arabs and Lebanese to hold their heads high, and to the restoration of the lands and the holy places.
"We only wanted two things from you. First, leave us alone, don't conspire against us, don't kill us, don't stab us in the back. We don't even want your protection. All we want is for you not to conspire against us. That is enough for us.
"What do you want from us? I have said this to many people. We are people who go to be killed in South Lebanon. Our young men come from Baalbek and from the remotest part of Hermel, to be killed in South Lebanon. While we are being killed, you are making fun of us, saying that we are wretched, bankrupt people, who have no political plan.
"You want to say that our plan is martyrdom? Fine. Let us commit our martyrdom without you stabbing us in the back. Let us be killed by a bullet to our chest, not in our back. When did we ever compete with you for the government, for a ministry, or for the rule? [...]
"We do not seek to run the government. Our hearts and minds are elsewhere. When people go to sleep, we conduct training and prepare ourselves, because we believe that great developments will take place in the region, and that there is a real and impending Israeli danger. We believe that the Palestinian people is in danger within Palestine, and that the Islamic and Christian holy places are in the greatest danger.
"We read the developments in the region. Our hearts and minds are elsewhere, but you have dragged us into the domestic [political] scene. Since 2005, you have been going to Washington and presenting guarantees. Since 2005, you have been conspiring against the resistance – against its weapons and its very existence.
"You have given them guarantees. Even the internal dialogue was meant to disarm the resistance, but you failed. You invited the 2006 war against the resistance in Lebanon, but you failed. And today, your plan of an international tribunal is meant to harm the resistance, but both you and the tribunal will fail." [...]
