Hezbollah destined to fail in Qalamoun: Nusra chief
The Daily Star/May. 28, 2015
BEIRUT: Hezbollah is doomed to fail in Qalamoun and throughout Syria, the leader of the Nusra Front has said, predicting that the Lebanese group would be defeated after the “approaching” downfall of the Syrian government. “The Qalamoun battle is decisive for Hezbollah,” Abu Mohammad al-Golani said in a late-Wednesday interview with Al-Jazeera. He said Hezbollah was intimidating Lebanese and exaggerating the border threat. The Nusra Front is leading a coalition of jihadi groups fighting Hezbollah and the Syrian army in the Qalamoun region on Syria’s western border with Lebanon. Golani described Qalamoun as a key region for its entry into Damascus.
Golani called on “all political forces in Lebanon to overthrow Hezbollah, which will dissolve after the demise of [Syrian President] Bashar Assad, not a long time from now, [since] the battle is approaching its end.” The Syrian army and Hezbollah launched the battle for Qalamoun earlier this month, capturing dozens of Nusra Front and ISIS bases and driving the jihadis north.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah vowed in a recent speech that the Qalamoun offensive would push on until Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria is secure.
Golani, who appeared in a black scarf covering his head, accused ISIS of “stabbing us [Nusra] in the back.”
“They attacked us while we were fighting Hezbollah and Assad’s regime in Qalamoun,” he said. He denied that Nusra was receiving any financial assistance, insisting that his group relies on money coming from businesses in areas under its control. Golani claimed to have documents that prove the U.S. was coordinating airstrikes with the Syrian government against jihadi fighters.
He denied that his group would harm religious minorities including Christians, living under their Islamist system once it is established. “Currently, we are fighting those who fight us,” he said. “We will not impose anything on the Christians at present [because] we are not at war with them.” Golani said Druze villages under control of the Nusra Front areas were not harmed.
