Nasrallah: 7 May not be used to incite tensions

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah praised Friday resistance fighters who were slain during the July-August 2006 war and said the completion of reconstruction projects in the southern suburbs marked a victory over the destruction inflicted on Lebanon by Israel in the 33-day conflict. "Today we announce victory by rebuilding [the area] over the war of destruction," Nasrallah said on the occasion of the completion of the Waad project aimed at rebuilding parts of the southern suburbs of the capital that were damaged in the July-August 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel. The Waad project, named after an address by Nasrallah on Aug. 14, 2006, hours after a cease-fire with Israel came into effect, was launched in June 2007. During that speech, Nasrallah promised that his party would help reconstruct the heavily damaged buildings in the southern suburbs following the 33-day war. In his speech Friday, Nasrallah said Israel’s main objective of destroying infrastructure during time of war was to punish those supporting the resistance. He also warned that the southern suburbs of the capital and the rest of Lebanon were still at risk from Israeli aggression. Nasrallah also said that there were several pressing issues facing south Lebanon in the aftermath of the war, including the return of thousands of families who were forced to migrate, the removal of cluster bombs, reconstruction, and overcoming the psychological effects of the war. “For every building that is destroyed in the southern suburbs, several buildings will be destroyed in Tel Aviv in return,” He said. “We are capable of not only hitting specific targets in Tel Aviv but also any place in occupied Palestine,” he said. “The era when our homes get destroyed and their remain [intact] is over,” he said. “The era has come when we survive while they will be doomed to extinction,” he said. The Hezbollah leader accused the United States, its Western allies and Israel as well as some countries in the region of seeking to destroy Syria.   "America, the West, Israel and some regional powers only seek to destroy the only supporter for the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine," he said, referring to Damascus. Turning to domestic affairs, Nasrallah said the elections season appeared to have commenced and said the 2013 parliamentary polls needed to be held on time. He also voiced support to an elections law based on proportional representation but did not discount other systems to regulate to upcoming elections. Nasrallah also urged that the May 7 conflict of 2008 not be used to incite sectarian tensions.