In his May 5, 2018 column in the daily Al-Hayat, senior Lebanese journalist, critic and political analyst Hazem Saghiya responded to Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas's antisemitic speech at the Palestinian National Council on April 30, 2018.[1] Saghiya wrote that the speech h...
In view of the ongoing victories of Assad's army in Syria and the apparent defeat of the Syrian opposition forces, on the eve of the elections in Iraq and Lebanon, Lebanese journalist Hazem Al-Amin, head of investigations and features at the Dubai-based Al-Hayat daily, published ...
Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, said that Syria had achieved a "balance of terror" with Israel and the response to a future Israeli strike would be inside Israel proper. Berri, who was speaking on Russia Today TV on May 11, also said: "If a war breaks out, I don'...
In his April 21, 2018 column in the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, titled "Hizbullah Resettling in Syria," Ahmad 'Ayyash referred to the policy of transfer and forced demographic change that the Bashar Al-Assad regime has been conducting in Syria over the past several years, with the a...
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said that "the international policy that encourages Syrians to remain in Lebanon and raises hell whenever a small group returns to Syria" was an "international conspiracy." Speaking on Mayadeen TV on April 29, he said that "they want to tar...
After the French president joined his American and British counterparts in warning that they would respond to the Syrian regime's chemical attack in Douma, Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor-in-chief of the pro-Hizbullah daily Al-Akhbar, penned a scathing article against France. Al-Amin acc...
Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin said in an April 11 Al-Manar TV interview that "If there is an American strike... Let me refer you to the statement by President Putin and the Russian Chief-of-Staff that the missiles will be shot down and&...
In late February, 2018, in a ceremony sponsored by Lebanon's Youth and Sports Minister, Hizbullah launched a 3D computer game for children and teens called "Holy Defense – Protecting the Homeland and the Holy Places," which simulates the organization's fighting in Syria. Accordin...
On December 21, 2017, it was reported that a census of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon had counted 174,422 refugees in the country. The census, called " General Census of Refugee Camp Residents And Palestinian Population Centers In Lebanon" and conducted over the course of about ...
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
In early March 2018, senior leaders of the Salafi-jihadi stream in the Ein Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon ...
On March 13, Shiite Lebanese cleric Muhammad Ali Al-Husseini called upon the State of Lebanon to revoke the citizenship of Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, saying that the latter's "slips of the tongue," when he reportedly said that the Rule of the Jurisprudent was a...
Lebanese cleric Sheikh Muhammad Abu Al-Qat' delivered a Friday sermon in which he claimed that "all the wars and strife around the world are planned by the Jews," as well as "all the corruption suffered by humanity." Sheikh Abu Al-Qat' also said that "all the films about crime, k...
Deputy Secretary-General of Hizbullah Sheikh Naim Qassem spoke at the Fourth Global Convention of Solidarity with Palestine on March 13, saying that the only way to regain Palestine was through resistance and "first and foremost, armed resistance." He further declared: "We want v...
Al-Manar TV reported on a new 3D computer game launched by Hizbullah called "Holy Defense," aimed at "simulating the heroic acts of the mujahideen of the Islamic resistance against the takfiri movement in Lebanon and Syria. Jawwad, a boy whose father was "martyred," told the TV r...
On February 15, 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Lebanon for an hours-long stopover, as part of his Middle East tour that included Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Egypt. During his visit, he met with Lebanese President Michel 'Aoun, Prime Minister Sa'd ...
In a November 25, 2017 article marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, published in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Lebanese journalist Karam Al-Hilu compared the meager accomplishments of the Arab world in the past century with those of the rest of the countri...
Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech on February 16 that "if the Lebanese Higher Defense Council makes an official decision that some gas and oil rigs in the Palestinian sea – a sea plundered by Israel, the enemy entity – must not operate, I p...
Lebanese Defense Minister Yacoub Sarraf said, with regard to terrorism carried out in Europe: "I reject the notion that we should hold ourselves responsible for an erroneous, misleading idea, or that we should hold ourselves responsible for people who follow this path," objecting...
A February 9, 2018 article on the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese website Dahiya claims that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently rejected an Israeli demand, relayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, to remove some 70,000 Iranian long-range missiles that Hizbullah has deployed thr...
In a recent TV interview, Lebanese journalist Ziad Njeim said that the only thing he was sure of was his doubt that God exists. Zjeim refers to God as female "out of rebellion against the male-dominated religious institutions." "If men had any brains, they would not have brought ...
Ebrahim Raisi, associate of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who recently was apparently designated his heir, was photographed on a January 30, 2018 tour of the Lebanon-Israel border, accompanied by senior Iranian and Hizbullah officials. In the photographs, the officials' fac...
Sheikh Bassam Al-Kayed, head of the Palestinian Islamic Scholars Association in Lebanon, said in a recent interview that “the Jews in Europe committed the worst sins.” “Everybody hated them,” he added. “They were the epitome of evil.” According to Sheikh Al-Kayed, the Europeans c...
Iranian MP Mojtaba Zolnour, who chairs Iran's parliamentary nuclear committee and is a member of the parliamentary national security and foreign affairs committee, warned that "Hizbullah has armed the land of Lebanon with over 110,000 missile launchers, which lie concealed underg...
Amid concern in Jordan about the presence of pro-Iran Shi'ite forces on the Jordan-Syria border,[1] and following the November 19, 2017 Arab League statement calling Hizbullah an organization "that supports terrorist groups in the Arab world," Fahd Al-Fanek, a senior columnist in...
In a TV debate on political developments in the Middle East, the Lebanese guests expressed antisemitic views, with Omar Abd Al-Rahman Al-Ayubi, an expert on Islamic affairs, saying that the Jews "are the enemies of the Muslims and of all humanity" and that they had killed prophet...
Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah played down the situation in Iran, saying that what has happened there "is being successfully contained" and that "in my opinion there is nothing to be worried about." Speaking on Mayadeen TV, in an interview that was broadcast on Janu...
Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah played down the situation in Iran, saying that what has happened there "is being successfully contained" and that "in my opinion there is nothing to be worried about." Speaking on Mayadeen TV, in an interview that was broadcast on Janu...
Recently, and especially since the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, elements in the resistance axis, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Iran and Hizb...
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil came under fire after a TV interview in which he said that normalization of relations with Israel was "not an ideological issue" and that "we are not opposed to the existence of Israel and to its right to security." He made the statements o...
The reactions of the Iran-led resistance axis to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital were characterized mainly by calls for escalated violence, in particular against U.S. interests.[1] However, the response of Hizbullah secretary-g...
In a Friday sermon delivered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Lebanese-American Imam Abu Musaab Wajdi Akkari warned in the congregation not to "be weak" and say "Merry Christmas" to people. By doing so, "you are indirectly acknowledging a Satanic holiday," he said. If someone asks why yo...
Lebanese journalist and researcher Rafiq Nasrallah said in a TV interview that "Jihad must take place from within Palestine" and that "the issue of opening the borders cannot be dealt with without a strategy or plan." Speaking on Mayadeen TV on December 11, Nasrallah, Director of...
Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that Trump's declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital would "spell the beginning of the end for Israel, Allah willing." In a mass rally held in Beirut on December 11, the masses repeated his cries of "Death to America...
U.S. President Donald Trump's December 6, 2017 announcement of U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and of the planned move of the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, has triggered a range of reactions from Palestinians and across the Arab world, from relatively restr...
Qais Al-Khazali, the leader of the Iraqi Shi'ite militia Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haq, entered Lebanon and went on a tour of the Israeli-Lebanese border. In a video aired by the Iraqi Al-Ahd TV on December 8, Al-Khazali is seen listening to an explanation about the Israeli settlements acros...
Sheikh Bassam Al-Amoush, former Jordanian ambassador to Iran, said that missiles fired by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia were Iranian missiles. Warning about the role of Hizbullah in the region, he said: "Hassan Nasrallah is mightier than the Lebanese president, mightier than t...
In his May 5, 2018 column in the daily Al-Hayat, senior Lebanese journalist, critic and political analyst Hazem Saghiya responded to Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas's antisemitic speech at the Palestinian National Council on April 30, 2018.[1] Saghiya wrote that the speech h...
In view of the ongoing victories of Assad's army in Syria and the apparent defeat of the Syrian opposition forces, on the eve of the elections in Iraq and Lebanon, Lebanese journalist Hazem Al-Amin, head of investigations and features at the Dubai-based Al-Hayat daily, published ...
In his April 21, 2018 column in the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, titled "Hizbullah Resettling in Syria," Ahmad 'Ayyash referred to the policy of transfer and forced demographic change that the Bashar Al-Assad regime has been conducting in Syria over the past several years, with the a...
After the French president joined his American and British counterparts in warning that they would respond to the Syrian regime's chemical attack in Douma, Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor-in-chief of the pro-Hizbullah daily Al-Akhbar, penned a scathing article against France. Al-Amin acc...
In late February, 2018, in a ceremony sponsored by Lebanon's Youth and Sports Minister, Hizbullah launched a 3D computer game for children and teens called "Holy Defense – Protecting the Homeland and the Holy Places," which simulates the organization's fighting in Syria. Accordin...
On December 21, 2017, it was reported that a census of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon had counted 174,422 refugees in the country. The census, called " General Census of Refugee Camp Residents And Palestinian Population Centers In Lebanon" and conducted over the course of about ...
On February 15, 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Lebanon for an hours-long stopover, as part of his Middle East tour that included Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Egypt. During his visit, he met with Lebanese President Michel 'Aoun, Prime Minister Sa'd ...
In a November 25, 2017 article marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, published in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Lebanese journalist Karam Al-Hilu compared the meager accomplishments of the Arab world in the past century with those of the rest of the countri...
A February 9, 2018 article on the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese website Dahiya claims that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently rejected an Israeli demand, relayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, to remove some 70,000 Iranian long-range missiles that Hizbullah has deployed thr...
Ebrahim Raisi, associate of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who recently was apparently designated his heir, was photographed on a January 30, 2018 tour of the Lebanon-Israel border, accompanied by senior Iranian and Hizbullah officials. In the photographs, the officials' fac...
Amid concern in Jordan about the presence of pro-Iran Shi'ite forces on the Jordan-Syria border,[1] and following the November 19, 2017 Arab League statement calling Hizbullah an organization "that supports terrorist groups in the Arab world," Fahd Al-Fanek, a senior columnist in...
Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah played down the situation in Iran, saying that what has happened there "is being successfully contained" and that "in my opinion there is nothing to be worried about." Speaking on Mayadeen TV, in an interview that was broadcast on Janu...
The reactions of the Iran-led resistance axis to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital were characterized mainly by calls for escalated violence, in particular against U.S. interests.[1] However, the response of Hizbullah secretary-g...
U.S. President Donald Trump's December 6, 2017 announcement of U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and of the planned move of the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, has triggered a range of reactions from Palestinians and across the Arab world, from relatively restr...
The concluding announcement issued by the Arab League foreign ministers following their November 19, 2017 emergency meeting in Cairo declared Hizbullah a terrorist organization and accused it of "supporting terrorism and terrorist organizations in the Arab states by [supplying th...
On October 24-26, 2017, the American organization In Defence of Christians (IDC) held its annual summit in Washington D.C., attended by Christian religious leaders from across the Middle East, including Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rai. The summit was also atten...
On November 5, 2017, the day after Lebanese prime minister Sa'd Al-Hariri announced, in Riyadh, that he was stepping down, and also the day after the Houthis in Yemen fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh's King Khaled International Airport – both of these events reflecting further...
In the past two weeks, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hizbullah, published a front-page article and an interview quoting Iraqi elements, who state that, after the Islamic State (ISIS) is defeated, they intend to continue their military activity, focusing it this ...
Introduction
On November 3, 2017, Ibrahim Al-Amin, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Al-Akhbar Lebanese daily, which is close to Hizbullah and to the Syrian regime, published an article in which he claimed that a senior American security official had visited Syria seve...
The last weeks have seen a further escalation of the tension between Saudi Arabia and Hizbullah. This is evident from statements by Saudi Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer Al-Sabhan, who tweeted his support of U.S. sanctions on Hizbullah, calling it "the Party of Satan,"[1] and urged ...
The extensive damage caused by Hurricane Irma in Florida has prompted many reactions on Arab social media, many of them expressing schadenfreude at the disaster and calling Irma divine punishment for the U.S. administration's policy vis-à-vis the Arab and Muslim countries.
Fo...
In an article published in the UAE paper Al-Bayan, Dr. Ahmad Barqawi, a philosopher of Syrian-Palestinian origin and the former head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Damascus, who currently resides in Dubai, came out against Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas. He said tha...
On August 19, 2017, the Lebanese army launched an attack to seize the area between the northern Beqa Valley and the Syrian border (henceforth the Lebanese Jaroud) from the control of the Islamic State (ISIS), while the Syrian army and Hizbullah launched an attack on ISIS on the o...
The fierce controversy in Lebanon about Hizbullah's involvement in the Syria war alongside Assad's army intensified recently following the organization's involvement in the last two weeks in fighting against Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (formerly Jabhat Al-Nusra) in Jaroud Arsal, a moun...
Since its establishment some three years ago – following a fatwa issued by Iraqi Shi'ite leader Ayatollah 'Ali Sistani calling for "jihad kifa'i"[1] against ISIS – the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU, Al-Hashd Al-Sha'bi in Arabic), an umbrella organization of armed Iraqi militias...
The visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia on May 20-22, 2017, the highlight of which was the summit attended by 50 Arab and Islamic countries, was widely covered in the Arab press. Articles published in the Arab newspapers that support the "moderate axis" in the Ar...
The award of the Man Booker International prize to Israeli author David Grossman for his book A Horse Walks into a Bar was covered in the Arab media, evoking various responses. Some figures called to know and appreciate Israeli literature and culture, and emphasized that an Israe...
A May 18, 2017 report in the Lebanese Al-Mustaqbal daily, owned by Al-Mustaqbal faction leader Sa'd Al-Hariri, claims that in recent weeks Hizbullah has rearranged its forces in Syria and Lebanon. According to the report, Hizbullah has withdrawn its elite units, including the Al-...
In mid-January, U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hi) visited Syria and met with its president Bashar Al-Assad. In an April 3, 2017 article, Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor of the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is close to the Assad regime and to Hizbullah, claimed that Gabbard had me...
On March 30, 2017, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the "long term status of [Syrian] President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people."[1] Following this comment, Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor in chief of the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is close to the Assad reg...
In an article titled "Does Hizbullah Threaten Israel or Us" in the English-language Saudi daily Arab News, Lebanese columnist Diana Moukalled commented on the recent escalation in Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah's threats against Israel, including his threat to...
Ahead of the March 29, 2017 Arab League summit in Jordan, five former Lebanese presidents and prime ministers – Amine Gemayel, Michel Suleiman, Najib Mikati, Fuad Al-Siniora and Tammam Salam – sent a letter to Jordan's King 'Abdallah, who chaired the summit, and to the other Arab...
The Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida reported on March 11, 2017, citing an aid to Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), that Iran established facilities for manufacturing missiles and other weapons in Lebanon and has recently handed them over ...
In the last six months there have been increasing reports in the Lebanese media regarding Hizbullah's efforts to enforce compliance with Islamic standards in various towns in South Lebanon. This religious coercion is manifest in announcements issued by municipal and local council...
Reports have recently begun to appear again in the Lebanese press regarding military activity by Hizbullah south of the Litani River, on the Lebanon-Israel border, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and on the organization's increasing strength in the ...
On February 11, 2017, in an interview with the Egyptian channel CBC, Lebanese President Michel 'Aoun defended Hizbullah's possession of weapons, saying: "So long as there is [Lebanese] land occupied by Israel, and so long as the [Lebanese] army is not strong enough to fight Israe...
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
In early March 2018, senior leaders of the Salafi-jihadi stream in the Ein Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon ...
Recently, and especially since the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, elements in the resistance axis, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Iran and Hizb...
Introduction
On June 9, 2017, forces of the resistance axis, which is headed by Iran and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, reached the Syria-Iraq border. This is an important accomplishment of these forces vis-à-vis the U.S. and its allies, and it not only boost...
On November 13, 2016, Hizbullah marked its annual Martyr Day by holding its first military parade in a Syrian town, Al-Qusayr, which Hizbullah took over in 2013 following a long and bloody battle with rebel forces, and which has since become the main symbol of the organization's ...
Introduction
On October 31, 2016, the Lebanese parliament will convene and is expected to vote in Free Patriotic Movement leader and Hizbullah ally Michel Aoun as president of Lebanon; he is Hizbullah's sole candidate. The move follows a deal struck between Aoun and former Leb...
Introduction
On June 12, 2016, shortly after 20:00, while
Beirut residents were breaking their Ramadan fast, an eight-kilogram bomb went
off outside the headquarters of BLOM Bank,[1]
one of Lebanon's leading banks, wounding two people and damaging the building.
In light of the ...
Introduction
Over the past two years, Lebanese Shi'ite voices have emerged every so often to criticize and express resentment against Hizbullah over its military involvement in Syria. Beginning in August 2012, anti-Hizbullah Lebanese Shi'ites implicitly criticized Hizbullah in...
Introduction
The Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act, passed by the
U.S. Congress in December 2015, is aimed at curtailing the organization's funding
of its domestic and international activities, and also at combatting its global
criminal activities - including mone...
IntroductionIn
recent weeks, a deep crisis has developed in Lebanese-Saudi relations, to the
extent that Saudi Arabia took punitive measures against Lebanon: halting a $4
billion aid package to the Lebanese security forces;[1]
issuing a travel warning for this country, and tak...
Introduction
On February 1, 2016, four
Hizbullah foreign security operatives were arrested in France for running an
international network that used millions in drug money to fund the
organization's military activity in Syria. According to a U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA) off...
IntroductionFor the past seven months, the
Syrian town of Madaya, northwest of Damascus, has been besieged by Hizbullah
and forces of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The town's
plight has made headlines lately because of numerous media reports that its
residents a...
Introduction
At
a press conference on December 15, 2015 at 3:00 a.m., Saudi Defense Minister and
Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman announced the establishment of the Islamic
Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism, which includes 35 Arab and Muslim
countries. He said that the...
Introduction
In recent weeks, tensions in the intra-Lebanese political arena have escalated to the point of a possible confrontation between Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and the Al-Mustaqbal stream; this confrontation is expected to involve the pro-Aoun Christian co...
Introduction
Recent statements by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah regarding the existential danger faced by his organization and the resistance axis in the war against ISIS, and regarding the possible need for a general mobilization of Hizbullah members, reflect the ...
Introduction
As jihadist organizations gain power in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, and especially after large areas of Syria and Iraq have fallen under the control of the Islamic State (ISIS), which is attempting to impose radical Islam there, the Christian and Druze min...
Introduction
Senior Lebanese politicians from the Lebanese March 14 Forces, chief among them former Lebanese prime minister Sa'd Al-Hariri, as well as press columnists and writers affiliated with this stream, have recently renewed their criticism against Hizbullah and its activit...
Introduction
The death of six Hizbullah operatives in a January 18, 2015 airstrike in the Syrian Golan, including two senior organization members - Muhammad Ahmad 'Issa, known as Abu 'Issa, and Jihad Mughniyah, the son of 'Imad Mughniyah, Hizbullah's chief operations officer w...
Georges Ibrahim 'Abdallah is a Lebanese national who is serving a life-sentence in France for the murder of two diplomats and the attempted murder of a third. On November 6, 2014, the day after a French court denied his ninth request for parole, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, whic...
Introduction Former Lebanese prime minister Sa'd Al-Hariri, and the Mustaqbal stream, which he heads, have long been considered moderate elements and the traditional representatives of most Sunnis in Lebanon. Recently, however, cracks have appeared in this support among various S...
Introduction Over the past few years, MEMRI has released a series of reports documenting the Lebanese terrorist organization Hizbullah's online activity (see Appendix I). These reports followed Hizbullah's launch of new websites for its leadership, for its television channel and ...
Introduction Over the years, Hizbullah's extensive and varied system of propaganda has scored many successes in its effort to depict the organization – to the Arab world and especially to the Lebanese – as a popular, national, and legitimate movement working to defend Lebanon ag...
Introduction In February 2013, Hizbullah deputy secretary-general Sheikh Na'im Qassem said that the Americans had "contacted us in various ways and via mediators and asked to sit down with us. We answered via the mediators that the images [of such a meeting] would do no good, and...
Introduction Ten months after he was tasked by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman with forming a new government in the country, on February 15, 2014, Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam announced that the new government had been established. It includes nearly all of the country...
Introduction Hizbullah's military involvement in the fighting in Syria alongside the Syrian regime has caused a rift within the organization and among its supporters in the Lebanese Shi'ite population, who form the main base of its popular, political, and military might in the c...
Introduction In an August 1, 2013 address on the occasion of Lebanese Army Day, which he devoted to the army's role as the nation's defender, Lebanese president Michel Suleiman renewed his attack on Hizbullah's arsenal, even referring to it as "illegal weapons." Suleiman argued t...
Introduction Last week, there was a significant development in the sectarian struggle in Lebanon between Sunnis and Shi'ites, and in the activity by the extreme Salafi groups in the country. Ahmad Al-Asir, the Salafi sheikh from Sidon, together with his armed supporters, launched...
Almanarnews Twitter page Introduction Hizbullah exerts special efforts in its social media activities, and has a number of times called attempts to stop its cyber jihad activity on social media a "war" and "electronic onslaught" against it.[1] Despite its designation by the U.S....
Introduction In a speech given on May 25, 2013, on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of the withdrawal of the Israeli military from South Lebanon, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah openly admitted what was already known, namely that his organization is actively fi...
Introduction Following Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah's explicit admission on May 25, 2013 that his organization is fighting in Syria alongside the Assad regime,[1] Sunni clerics and jihadi organizations began to call for jihad against Hizbullah and Shi'ites in ge...
Introduction On March 23, 2013, as the Sunni-Shi'ite struggle in Lebanon reached a peak, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced his resignation and brought down the Hizbullah-dominated government that had been formed in June 2011 under the sponsorship of this organizatio...
Introduction The recent months have seen a considerable increase of tension between Sunnis and Shi'ites in Lebanon, to the extent that there is growing fear of a confrontation between the two sides – especially between the Shi'ite Hizbullah and Sunni Salafi elements. On February...
Introduction On April 7, 2013, the Bahraini government approved a proposal by parliament to compile a list of terrorist organizations and to enter Hizbullah onto it, and ordered the interior and foreign ministries to take steps to implement this resolution. This is an unprecedent...
Introduction The decline in Hizbullah's public and political status in Lebanon has recently become apparent among the country's Shi'ite population as well. Since the confirmation of reports that Hizbullah is involved in fighting alongside Assad's regime in Syria,[1] more and more...
Introduction In its July 27, 2012 report Designated Terrorist Organization Hizbullah Makes Extensive Use Of U.S. Social Media – Apple iTunes, iPad and iPhone, Google, Android, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter – In Violation Of U.S. Law, MEMRI detailed how Hizbullah uses U.S.-based ...
Introduction Over the past year, MEMRI has been researching the online activity of the designated terrorist organization Hizbullah,[1] including its accounts on social media – YouTube,[2] Twitter,[3] and Facebook[4] – and Hizbullah apps.[5] As MEMRI reports have highlighted, Hizb...
Introduction The rivalry between Hizbullah and the Al-Mustaqbal faction in Lebanon is reflected, inter alia, in their differing stances on Syria: While Hizbullah supports the Assad regime, Al-Mustaqbal wants to see it toppled. Moreover, numerous reports in the Arab and West...
Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, said that Syria had achieved a "balance of terror" with Israel and the response to a future Israeli strike would be inside Israel proper. Berri, who was speaking on Russia Today TV on May 11, also said: "If a war breaks out, I don'...
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said that "the international policy that encourages Syrians to remain in Lebanon and raises hell whenever a small group returns to Syria" was an "international conspiracy." Speaking on Mayadeen TV on April 29, he said that "they want to tar...
Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin said in an April 11 Al-Manar TV interview that "If there is an American strike... Let me refer you to the statement by President Putin and the Russian Chief-of-Staff that the missiles will be shot down and&...
On March 13, Shiite Lebanese cleric Muhammad Ali Al-Husseini called upon the State of Lebanon to revoke the citizenship of Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, saying that the latter's "slips of the tongue," when he reportedly said that the Rule of the Jurisprudent was a...
Lebanese cleric Sheikh Muhammad Abu Al-Qat' delivered a Friday sermon in which he claimed that "all the wars and strife around the world are planned by the Jews," as well as "all the corruption suffered by humanity." Sheikh Abu Al-Qat' also said that "all the films about crime, k...
Deputy Secretary-General of Hizbullah Sheikh Naim Qassem spoke at the Fourth Global Convention of Solidarity with Palestine on March 13, saying that the only way to regain Palestine was through resistance and "first and foremost, armed resistance." He further declared: "We want v...
Al-Manar TV reported on a new 3D computer game launched by Hizbullah called "Holy Defense," aimed at "simulating the heroic acts of the mujahideen of the Islamic resistance against the takfiri movement in Lebanon and Syria. Jawwad, a boy whose father was "martyred," told the TV r...
Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech on February 16 that "if the Lebanese Higher Defense Council makes an official decision that some gas and oil rigs in the Palestinian sea – a sea plundered by Israel, the enemy entity – must not operate, I p...
Lebanese Defense Minister Yacoub Sarraf said, with regard to terrorism carried out in Europe: "I reject the notion that we should hold ourselves responsible for an erroneous, misleading idea, or that we should hold ourselves responsible for people who follow this path," objecting...
In a recent TV interview, Lebanese journalist Ziad Njeim said that the only thing he was sure of was his doubt that God exists. Zjeim refers to God as female "out of rebellion against the male-dominated religious institutions." "If men had any brains, they would not have brought ...
Sheikh Bassam Al-Kayed, head of the Palestinian Islamic Scholars Association in Lebanon, said in a recent interview that “the Jews in Europe committed the worst sins.” “Everybody hated them,” he added. “They were the epitome of evil.” According to Sheikh Al-Kayed, the Europeans c...
Iranian MP Mojtaba Zolnour, who chairs Iran's parliamentary nuclear committee and is a member of the parliamentary national security and foreign affairs committee, warned that "Hizbullah has armed the land of Lebanon with over 110,000 missile launchers, which lie concealed underg...
In a TV debate on political developments in the Middle East, the Lebanese guests expressed antisemitic views, with Omar Abd Al-Rahman Al-Ayubi, an expert on Islamic affairs, saying that the Jews "are the enemies of the Muslims and of all humanity" and that they had killed prophet...
Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah played down the situation in Iran, saying that what has happened there "is being successfully contained" and that "in my opinion there is nothing to be worried about." Speaking on Mayadeen TV, in an interview that was broadcast on Janu...
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil came under fire after a TV interview in which he said that normalization of relations with Israel was "not an ideological issue" and that "we are not opposed to the existence of Israel and to its right to security." He made the statements o...
In a Friday sermon delivered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Lebanese-American Imam Abu Musaab Wajdi Akkari warned in the congregation not to "be weak" and say "Merry Christmas" to people. By doing so, "you are indirectly acknowledging a Satanic holiday," he said. If someone asks why yo...
Lebanese journalist and researcher Rafiq Nasrallah said in a TV interview that "Jihad must take place from within Palestine" and that "the issue of opening the borders cannot be dealt with without a strategy or plan." Speaking on Mayadeen TV on December 11, Nasrallah, Director of...
Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that Trump's declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital would "spell the beginning of the end for Israel, Allah willing." In a mass rally held in Beirut on December 11, the masses repeated his cries of "Death to America...
Qais Al-Khazali, the leader of the Iraqi Shi'ite militia Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haq, entered Lebanon and went on a tour of the Israeli-Lebanese border. In a video aired by the Iraqi Al-Ahd TV on December 8, Al-Khazali is seen listening to an explanation about the Israeli settlements acros...
Sheikh Bassam Al-Amoush, former Jordanian ambassador to Iran, said that missiles fired by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia were Iranian missiles. Warning about the role of Hizbullah in the region, he said: "Hassan Nasrallah is mightier than the Lebanese president, mightier than t...
Kuwaiti writer Abdullah Al-Hadlaq said that Israel was an independent and legitimate sovereign state and that there was no occupation, but instead, "a people returning to its promised land." "When the State of Israel was established in 1948, there was no state called 'Palestine,'...
A Saudi panel debated possible Saudi measures against Hizbullah on Rotana Khalijiyya TV on November 8. Saudi political commentator Mobarak Al-Atty said that he hoped for a "direct military operation that will annihilate Hizbullah," either by the Islamic Military Alliance or by th...
Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin said, in a November 9 Mayadeen TV interview, that while "we are not against discussing the presence of armed forces [near the border]... the issue of Iranian and Hizbullah [presence near the border] was never on the agenda." Ambass...
Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that Saudi Arabia had "asked Israel to attack Lebanon," and had offered "tens of billions of dollars" in return. In his address, which aired on Mayadeen TV on November 11, he said that in the Israeli media, "many are saying that t...
On October 25, enraged shop owners in the Hizbullah stronghold of Dahieh, Beirut, protested against Hassan Nasrallah following the demolition of their roadside shops for building violations. Demonstrators blocked the road and burned tires in what the Al-Jadeed/New TV reporter cal...
Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that the Zionists were "leading themselves into certain annihilation" and warned "non-Zionist Jews" to leave "occupied Palestine" and return to the countries from which they came. "Netanyahu, his government, and his military comma...
Lebanese journalist Nadia Shreim Al-Hajj said that there was "a Western conspiracy to expel all Christians from the Orient," claiming that churches were bombed in Iraq and Christians began to leave the country when the Americans arrived, and not during the Saddam regime. Her stat...
Russian ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin argued that in the U.S.S.R. in the 1960s and 1970s, "we cared about human rights more than many other countries," and that "If we delve into the issue of freedom, we realize that liberals and fascists converge at some point in thei...
Hizbullah Deputy Leader Naim Qassem defended the recent Hizbullah-Islamic State (ISIS) deal, in which ISIS militants and their families were given free passage to Deir Al-Zor, saying that it was "the best possible deal at the smallest price." He criticized U.S. airstrikes against...
Lebanese political commentator and Hizbullah loyalist Faysal Abed El Sater found himself on the receiving end of an Iraqi TV host's ire following the ISIS-Hizbullah deal in which ISIS fighters and families were given free passage to Deir Al-Zor, near the Syrian-Iraqi border, in e...
Former Lebanese MP Mustafa Allouch, a member of the Future Movement, said in a recent interview that Hizbullah is worse than Jabhat Al-Nusra and that it would be great if Hizbullah, Jabhat Al-Nusra, and ISIS all went to Hell. "They are the three faces of extremism and terrorism i...
During an Al-Jazeera talk show, Lebanese writer Sarkis Abu Zaid said that the Jewish Zionist lobby influences the Hollywood film industry, with a tradition of presenting the Arabs as deceitful, terrorist, murderous sheikhs. Tunisian Professor Muhammad Hneid, of Sorbonne Universit...
Egyptian MP Said Hassasin, who owns Al-Assema TV and moderates a talk show on the channel, lost his cool during a July 26 debate between Shi'ite and Sunni activists. Iraqi Shiite activist Youssef Al-Ghawab got the TV host and the Sunni Islamist guest riled up several times, when ...
In a July 21 Friday sermon delivered at the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq Mosque in the Al-Buss refugee camp in Lebanon, Sheikh Hassan Diab said that the Jews were prophet slayers who were transformed into apes and pigs by Allah after they incurred His wrath. "It is not surprising that they...
Sheikh Muhammad Nimr Zaghmout, the head of the Palestinian Islamic Council in Lebanon, declared Jihad for the “liberation” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque during a July 16 interview on Mayadeen TV. Sheikh Zaghmout said that Jihad has become “an individual duty” incumbent upon every Muslim ...
Lebanese journalist Naufal Daou, a member of March 14 Alliance, called upon the Christians and other Lebanese to oppose Hizbullah. "Our problem today in Lebanon is that Hizbullah is just like any occupying force," with illegitimate weapons, he said, adding that nobody dares to op...
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Feb. 16, 2015
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