Nasrallah speaks Tuesday evening during Ashoura

BEIRUT — Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah spoke Tuesday evening, on the fourth night of Ashoura, urging people to be “patient” as the “enemy wages a different war on Lebanon.”

Here’s what we know:

    • Nasrallah addressed the Lebanese by saying that the “enemy is not only using a military war strategy against Lebanon like they did in 2006 and in pre-2000, US sanctions against the country are also a war strategy.”

    • He stated that “The attempt of tarnishing the image of the resistance is also a media war,” adding that this needs patience and called on the collective effort of the people, to “combat this attack, each from his or her own place.”

    • On the economic crisis Lebanon has faced, Nasrallah commented: “The US and Israel are exploiting the economic crisis in Lebanon to blame it on Hezbollah, and to turn the people against the resistance.”

    • “For 40 years, since Hezbollah was founded, we have been combating the US-Israeli project in the region. As long as US hegemony remains in the region, and as long as Israel exists we will remain here, and this has repercussions that we have faced all these years,” he said.

    • On the topic of US aid, of which Hezbollah faces sanctions, Nasrallah stated that “The US is blocking aid from Lebanon, and has been promising the country gas from Egypt and electricity from Lebanon for a year now.” He added, “We all know these deals only need a signature from the US. All this is done to pressure the people.”

    • “We said last year that we can buy oil, fuel, and gas from Iran with the Lebanese lira, and we have proposed this solution to the Lebanese authorities, but we all know that the US veto took place and did not allow Lebanon to proceed with this step,” he said. On Friday, caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayad said he would agree to receive fuel from Iran. In 2021, Hezbollah imported Iranian fuel, when the crisis and fuel shortages had reached an all-time low, with hours-long (and sometimes day-long) queues in the rare occasion gas stations were open.

    • Nasrallah also covered the topic of maritime borders, and said Hezbollah is “waiting to see the outcome of US mediator Amos Hochstein’s work,” adding they will then “decide what action [they] should take.”

    • Commenting on the July 2006 war, Nasrallah said: “We were let down in 2006, internally, on a regional, and on an international level, but we only relied on God, we prayed to God and we became victorious because of God.” Nasrallah concluded his speech by urging people to “keep their faith in God as Lebanon faces another tough era.”