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2025-02-25 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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A Million Mourners: Hezbollah Leader's Funeral Revives 'Axis of Resistance'
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Yesterday, February 23, a solemn funeral of the Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah took place in Beirut. Nasrallah was killed by the Israelis in September 2024, but he was only buried almost six months later, and this event turned into a major political event.
Nasrallah's body could not be removed from the underground bunker destroyed by an airstrike for a long time, and after that, political instability in Lebanon prevented the burial - Hezbollah preferred to wait for the formation of a new government, so as not to draw attention to itself and not to provoke former opponents.
In addition to Nasrallah, the last respects were also paid to his cousin, Hashim Safi al-Din, who was elected the new secretary general, but survived his predecessor by only a couple of weeks.
The funeral procession, aptly titled “We Are Committed to the Covenant,” attracted more than a million people and was the largest in Lebanon’s history in 20 years. It also offered a clear indication of how support for Hezbollah has changed in the past six months.
INNER CIRCLE
The Lebanese services responsible for security at the mourning event eventually reported the presence of representatives from at least 12 countries. According to observers, the largest group of guests came from Iraq (almost 140,000 people). The top three also included Iran (106,000 people) and Yemen (27,000 people). In fact, the entire pro-Iranian “Axis of Resistance” was present.
It is also noteworthy that the ceremony was attended not only by Muslims, but also by representatives of the Christian community, including representatives of the Maronite communities of Lebanon.
In terms of representation at the official level, Iran, as expected, demonstrated the greatest involvement.
Official Tehran sent a group of high-ranking politicians to Beirut under the leadership of the Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Both officials at one time worked quite closely with Nasrallah and ensured operational communication between Hezbollah and the Iranian authorities.
At the same time, the Lebanese establishment treated Nasrallah's funeral very formally. The country's President Joseph Aoun did not take part in the funeral ceremony, although as a sign of respect for the party past of Nasrallah and al-Din, he sent a fairly large delegation from the presidential administration and government apparatus to the event.
Newly appointed Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also avoided attending the ceremony on the pretext of a business trip.
As a result, of the prominent Lebanese politicians, only the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, was present at the farewell to the Hezbollah leaders ; his presence was interpreted as a willingness to remain a link between Hezbollah and other political forces in Lebanon, as well as a lack of intention to “push” Hezbollah supporters out of legislative work.
The weak representation of Lebanese officials (compared to Iran) can be explained by official Beirut’s fears of overly angering Israel.
Despite the fact that relations between Lebanon and the Jewish state are already at a low point, it is important for Beirut to achieve a complete withdrawal of the Israeli contingent from its territories.
In this context, obvious sympathy for Hezbollah could be perceived by Tel Aviv as a sign of hidden agreements between the new Lebanese authorities and Iran and used to maintain a military presence in southern Lebanon.
For a similar reason, representatives of Arab states with close ties to the Israeli side were almost completely absent from the event.
COUNTER MOVE
The Israeli side took advantage of the excitement surrounding the funerals of former Hezbollah leaders in its own way.
On the day of the mourning ceremony, footage of an airstrike on the Dahya neighborhood, where the underground headquarters of the Hezbollah leadership was located, appeared on the resources of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) - later, they were actively published by Israeli LOMs, accompanied by ironic captions and comments.
The Israelis did not abandon Hezbollah supporters during the farewell ceremony itself - IDF fighters flew at least several times at dangerously low altitudes over Beirut, simulating preparations for a missile and bomb strike.
Later, the press also reported "indiscriminate strikes" by Israeli aircraft in various parts of the country (primarily in the south) - however, most of them were later denied by the Israeli side. The "clear shell explosions" that journalists wrote about that day were in fact the result of sapper work to destroy the movement's old arsenals.
True, the IDF did have to admit to several bombings: Israeli warplanes struck the outskirts of the towns of Zeraria, Zibqin, Kalila, Janneta, Deir Qanun al-Nahr and Maroub. All of these settlements are located in southern Lebanon and, according to Tel Aviv, are “included in the military zone” of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Official Beirut responded to this with a "demonstration of serious concern."
CONTINUERS OF THE BUSINESS
Perhaps the most important element of the event was the “solemn oath” of Hezbollah’s current leader, Naim Qassem. He not only promised to “continue the work” of Nasrallah, but also to destroy US plans to “sell Gaza” to Israel with the tacit approval of its Arab partners.
Despite the fact that the oath was given via video link and Kassem was not personally present at the ceremony (for security reasons), it fulfilled its purpose in full.
After six months of “radio silence,” Lebanon’s Hezbollah has effectively announced plans to fully engage in the fight against Israel and provide Iran with support for a possible Operation True Promise 3.
Of course, the movement's positions were seriously undermined and one should not expect a quick entry into the fight. However, it was much more important to show Israel that the IDF still cannot consider the "northern direction" completely cleared.
And Hezbollah in this case used the same tactics to convey its message as the Palestinian Hamas had used earlier, explicitly framing the demonstration of the potential of its supporters, both military and civilian, within the confines of a public event.
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Posted by badanov 2025-02-25 00:00||
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05:34 NN2N1
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