Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday acknowledged publicly for the first time that the Shiite terror group has dispatched fighters to Iraq, and he called on Arabs to set aside their sectarian battles to combat ISIS.
And Nasrallah – whose organization has killed hundreds of Americans in attacks in Lebanon – warned Muslims not to cooperate with the United States. "He who relies on the Americans relies on an illusion," Nasrallah said in a videotaped speech. "You rely on someone who is stealing from you and conniving against you."
Nasrallah cited events in Iraq and Syria as evidence that his Iranian-backed group and its allies are the only ones who are effectively fighting ISIS. He described the U.S. response to ISIS as too slow and inadequate,
The Washington Post reported.
"We won't wait for the Americans, nor will we wait for NATO," Nasrallah said in describing how Iraqi tribes and militias have taken up arms against ISIS.
Nasrallah said new volunteers are welcome to join the group's efforts, declaring that those who call for the group's withdrawal from Syria should "come with us to Iraq."
Iran's Press TV prominently featured Nasrallah's speech, in which he denounced U.S.-backed monarchies in Jordan and Bahrain and praised Houthi militants who overthrew the U.S.-backed government in Yemen.
According to Nasrallah, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that benefits from ISIS operations, saying that the jihadists' operations "had immensely served the Israeli[s]".
Nasrallah said Israel would always be "haunted by the blood" of Hezbollah military commander Imad Mugniyeh, who was assassinated seven years ago in Damascus in an
attack attributed to U.S. and Israeli intelligence.
Muginyeh was widely believed to be responsible for organizing terrorist attacks which killed hundreds of Americans, including 1983 bombings of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut and the U.S. Embassy there.
But according to Nasrallah, Mugniyeh was a hero. "The blood of the martyr Jihad has revived the memory of the commander Hajj Imad Mughniyeh and returned this brilliant and historic leader to the forefront of events once again, confirming that his presence is still strong in the minds of friends and in the mind of the enemy, which will always be haunted by Imad Mughniyeh's blood,"
Nasrallah said Monday.
CNN reported last week that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Qods Force has been playing a large role in providing weapons training and intelligence to Iraqi militias fighting ISIS.
The group "has a lot of American blood on its hands," CNN noted. The leader of the Qods Force, Qassem Soleimani, has travelled in and out of Iraq to supervise military operations there in recent months.
During the Iraq war in the mid-2000s, the Qods Force specialized in providing Iraqi insurgents militants with explosives capable of penetrating the armor on U.S. vehicles tanks, resulting in the deaths of scores of U.S. soldiers.