This year, for the first time, the Lebanese embassy in Moscow held an event to celebrate 'Resistance and Liberation Day,' marking Israel's withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000. Speeches were delivered by the ambassadors to Russia of Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Iran and Syria, as well as by the deputy president of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences, Col. Konstantin Sivkov, a former member of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. According to a report on the website of Hizbullah's Al-Manar television channel, Sivkov congratulated Hizbullah on its "glorious victory" in its war against Israel and rejected the claim that Hizbullah is a terror organization, saying that its involvement in the Syria war proved that the opposite is true, since Hizbullah fought the terror of ISIS, which is "run by the U.S. and the Israeli entity." He also compared Hizbullah's confrontation of the Israeli tanks in the 2006 war to the victorious battle fought by the Soviet army against the Nazi armored forces in the summer of 1943.
This is not the first time Sivkov has made harsh statements against Israel and the U.S. In June 2018 he said that the U.S. would not be able to prevent Turkey from buying Russian S-400 anti-aircraft defense systems, and that if the U.S. fought Turkey, Russia would come to its aid.[1] In March 2018, after details about the 2007 Israeli attack on the nuclear facility in Syria were published in the Israeli media, Sivkov said that Israel should be declared a threat to peace and that its leadership should be prosecuted by the International Court of Justice in Hague.[2]
Palestinian Ambassador to Russia 'Abd Al-Hafiz Nofal also praised Hizbullah at the event, saying that "the years-long Lebanese-Palestinian experience resisting the occupier [is] a model of shared destiny."
The event "Resistance and Liberation Day" event at the Lebanese embassy in Moscow (source: almanar.com.lb, May 27, 2019)
The following are excerpts from the report on the event on the Al-Manar website.[3]
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"Lebanese, Arabs, and Russian friends accepted the invitation extended by the Lebanese Ambassador [to Russia Chawki Bou Nassar] to celebrate the resistance and liberation, being celebrated for the first time at the Lebanese Embassy in Moscow. The celebration was both official and popular in nature, and the participants included the ambassadors of Syria, Iran, Palestine, Iraq, and Algeria, in addition to [members of] the Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, and Arab immigrant communities in Russia's cities, and senior academics and politicians.
"[At the event,] Palestinian Ambassador to Russia 'Abd Al-Hafiz Nofal called the years-long Lebanese-Palestinian experience resisting the occupier a model of shared destiny. Deputy President Russian of the Academy [of Missile and Artillery Sciences] Konstantin Sivkov said: 'The Lebanese people and its army, and its Islamic resistance – Hizbullah – have achieved glorious victory in the 21st century. This is because in 2000 most of South Lebanon was liberated from the Israeli occupation, and in 2006 Hizbullah set up, in the clash with the immense Israeli tank forces, highly coordinated and effective anti-armor defense lines. It can also be said [Hizbullah] has repeated the experience of our fighters in the important battle of the city of Kursk in World War II, during which the German Tiger tanks went up in flames – just as the Israeli Merkava tanks were burned and destroyed in South Lebanon...
Konstantin Sivkov (source: memri.org/tv)
'The Zionists and their Western allies are trying to cast the Islamic resistance – Hizbullah – as terrorist, but this resistance has proven its existence in the most noble manner in its war in Syria. Then it became completely clear whom it was fighting – it was fighting ISIS, the terror organization run by the U.S. and this Israeli entity – and again Hizbullah triumphed, shattering this terror organization [ISIS]. The Lebanese people is working to defend this homeland and its independence, and every attempt by foreign elements – particularly the Israeli attempts – will be stopped forcefully, and will cost them heavy losses.'"
"Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei said: 'Iran supports the resistance and will always do so, for this was [part of] the perception of the founder of the [Islamic] Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini, and the Republic [of Iran] follows this path under [Supreme] Leader Khamenei. We are very proud of the resistance and are committed to continue supporting it.'
"Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Haidar [Mansour Hadi] Al-Athari reminisced, [saying] that Iraqis are raised to love the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance and have been influenced by it since childhood, because the Lebanese resistance managed to expel the occupier without any negotiations.
"Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riyad Haddad stressed: 'The liberation [of South Lebanon] achieved by the honorable resistance in May 2000 would not have happened if our joint path of resistance and struggle against occupation and hegemony had not been a just one. The events of the last decades, as well as the struggles we are engaged in today, prove that, although the price of resistance is immense, it is much less than the price of surrender and humiliation.'
"Lebanese Ambassador to Russia Chawki Bou Nassar said: 'In 2000 a great victory was achieved when the Israeli enemy was forced to withdraw from most of the occupied Lebanese land, except for the Shab'a Farms and Kafar Shouba. [This was] thanks to the attacks of our courageous people, army and resistance, who sacrificed thousands of heroic martyrs... for the sake of their beloved land and country and managed, with the support of friendly sister states, to set a precedent in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict by shattering the myth of the invincible [Israeli] army and forcing it to withdraw from Arab land without political agreements.'"
[1] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 6631, Russian Expert Col. Konstantin Sivkov: If U.S. Fights Turkey, Russia Will Help Turkey; Russian Airbase, S-400 Systems Will Stay in Syria, June 11, 2018.
[2] Newsru.co.il. March 21, 2018.
[3] Almanar.com.lb, May 27, 2019.
