Nasrallah: Schalit deal 'a big achievement' for Hamas

In televised speech, Hezbollah leader praises Hamas's decision to hold IDF soldier alive and well in Gaza for so long.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho)
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho)
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Monday evening that the Gilad Schalit deal was a great achievement for Hamas, and that the Palestinian resistance should act in the same way in the future.
In a televised speech, Nasrallah praised Hamas’s decision to hold Schalit alive and well in Gaza for so long and with such secrecy.
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The Hezbollah leader dismissed reports that Hamas was planning to move its headquarters from Damascus to Cairo.
“Hamas does not want to leave Syria and Damascus does not want Hamas to leave,” Nasrallah said, according to Lebanese newspaper the Daily Star.
The Hezbollah leader went on condemn Israel and said it was a major threat in the Middle East, the paper said.
“The existence of the Israeli state is a threat to all Arab countries… it is a purely Jewish, racist country,” he said.
“The second threat is the US,” he said. “The [US] failed to implement their project of the new Middle East and now they are attempting to implement [this plan] again, one based on dividing the countries into mini states according to race and sect… This is a threat to everyone [Christian, Shi’ite, Sunnis].”
Nasrallah also slammed certain radical Muslim groups who “use killing as their only means [to change].”
The Hezbollah leader stressed the importance of a Muslim-Christian alliance “to face the Israeli threat and the threat of the US project in order for us to face radical movements.”