TEHRAN - “On the second anniversary of the martyrdom of the leaders of victory, the dear [General] Haj Qassem Soleimani, [Commander] Haj Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis and the Iranian and Iraqi brothers, who died as martyrs in that incident. 

After two years have passed, we return and commemorate this anniversary that has not disappeared during the past two years and its leaders and martyrs have not disappeared, neither their names, nor their pictures, nor their souls, nor their memory, nor their thoughts, nor their jihad, nor their achievements, nor the voice of revenge that resounds in the hearts of all their lovers throughout the world. 

When this occasion is commemorated today in Iran, in Iraq, in many Islamic and Arab countries, this revival is intended first to express recognition of the beauty, the kindness of these leaders and these martyrs. As you know, one of the misfortunes of mankind throughout history is the people who are in denial of the clear beauty of individuals such as these martyrs offered, what they accomplished, what they gave to their people, their nation, and their region.  

The martyrs who made great sacrifices for the sake of the pride, dignity, life, and happiness of our nation, our peoples, our country, and our homelands, we express our appreciation to them, our thanks to them, our love for them, our glorification for them, for what they offered and what they did and what they strived for.

The real value addressed with this appreciation and thanks is to emphasize the stability of their brothers and sisters who carried on their path of steadfastness, patience, commitment, resistance, presence, challenging and confronting the arrogant American and Zionist projects in our region, whatever the sacrifices were, and during these two years, there have also been confrontations.  

Great sacrifices and huge sacrifices have been made and one of the most prominent features of these was the battle of the sword of al-Quds in Gaza, in occupied Palestine, and the epic war of steadfastness and heroism that is still going on in the land of Yemen.

When we commemorate and talk about [General] Haj Qassem and Haj Abu Mahdi in relation to the incident of their martyrdom we must be wary about the enemy plots. 

Let us take some lessons from their martyrdom. I want to speak, with regards to the people in this region who talk about the killer and the martyr when we talk about Karbala. It is not enough to talk about [Imam] Hussein and Abbas, you must speak about Yazid and Ubaydallah bin Ziyad, otherwise, the picture will be incomplete.  

Between the killer and the martyr, our peoples, our countries, our governments, our homelands must determine a decisive position, not for the sake of the martyr, but for their sake, for their awareness, for their insight, for their battle, for their future and for the truth.

Iraq, which was a battlefield of [General] Haj Soleimani and [Commander] Haj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and also the land of their martyrdom, the martyr [General] Haj Qassem Soleimani and his brothers from Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, the martyr [Commander] Haj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and his brothers from the Popular Mobilization. Iraq was also the place of the killer, which was the Americans, and what is required from an Iraqi position and the same position from all the people of our region is our position on the killer and our position on the martyr. The Americans are the killer, let us not talk about history, but just the past twenty years; who occupied Iraq, killing tens of thousands of civilians, by the Americans’ own admission, destroyed many important sites, areas, and other parts of the country’s components, plundering Iraq’s resources and still plundering, imprisoning hundreds of thousands of people, practicing the most horrific forms of torture against Iraqi men and women and the Abu Ghraib prison scandals are still in the minds of everybody. 

The examples [of the U.S.] are clear, public, and known to all. This is America before it killed [General] Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. America killed, tortured, imprisoned, displaced, destroyed, looted, ruled with a tyrannical fist and is still tyrannical in Iraq abusing its sky and land. 

The [Iraqi] resistance expelled the U.S. armed forces in 2011-2012, but America itself, this killer, is the one who created Daesh, according to [former President] Trump and [Mike] Pompeo, who was the head of the CIA and later the Secretary of State and senior military leaders in the United States of America. 

Through Daesh, Iraq was placed in front of a real existential threat and we all remember those days when many Iraqi provinces fell within days, and Baghdad was under threat, Karbala was under threat and the rest of the Iraqi provinces were in the circle of great danger. America bears responsibility for all the crimes committed by Daesh in Iraq, with the pretext of Daesh that it created, the [U.S] returned to Iraq under different titles. This unjust, arrogant, hypocritical killer whose hypocrisy has no parallel in history, this is the killer. 

As for the martyr, he is the one who since the occupation of Iraq, and here when I talk about the martyr about Haj [General] Qassem Soleimani, I am talking about Haj [General] Qassem Soleimani and what he represents, not only about the person, when I talk about Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis and who he represents and what he represents; i am not referring here only about the person. As for the martyr, he is the one who resisted this occupation and stood by the Iraqis in their resistance to the occupation and contributed to the establishment of the Iraqi resistance factions and provided them with weapons, strength, vigor, hope, confidence and enthusiasm until the great victory and the expulsion of the American forces from Iraq through resistance in all its forms, especially the military and armed resistance, and when Daesh was brought in for America to return to Iraq, he was the first to stand by the Iraqi people to defend men, women, children, sanctities, dignity, honors, cities, villages and all Iraqis.  

The Islamic Republic of Iran, here Hajj Qassem represented his eminence the leader, he represented the government of the Islamic Republic, he represented its armed forces, he represented its [Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, he represented its brave and proud people. He and his brothers went [to Iraq] in the early days of Daesh’s presence, these were very difficult days, and they offered many martyrs, and [commander] Haj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and his brothers where the first to respond to the fatwa of the honorable religious authority and its historical call for jihad.  

The martyr slept on the ground and lived among the fighters, shared their pain, their hope, their joy, their sorrow, their hunger, their thirst, this is the martyr who saved Iraq and fought in defense of Iraq; and if Iraq today enjoys security, peace and stability, it is to a large degree due to the blessing of these martyrs. 

This is the martyr and this is the killer!  Is there anything equitable? here we come to the lesson of the martyr and the killer. Knowing the enemy and the friend, is there any equity? is there a sane person who can equate this killer with this martyr?

Between America, which occupied, killed, imprisoned, tortured, destroyed, looted, and created Daesh, and between the Islamic Republic of Iran, which supported, defended, protected and provided, is there justice for someone to say yes, America is a friend and Iran is a friend, and we deal with this friend the same way we deal with this friend? 

What’s worst is that some people act as if America is the friend and Iran is the enemy, that the killer is [General] Qassem Soleimani and [Commander] Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and the killer of the Iraqi people is the friend and that the martyr and whoever represents this martyr, the protectors and defenders are the enemy, this is a disaster. 

A disaster in awareness, a disaster in thought, a disaster in insight, a disaster in morals, a disaster in humanity, of course, this matter is made by the American embassy, ??the [enemy’s] media, their social media sites and electronic armies, not only in Iraq but in the entire region.  

They distort the image of the martyr; they distort the image of the resistance and the defender. As for the one who commits the most heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity, commits massacres in broad daylight, tortures and assaults women in prisons in Iraq, these Americans? No, these are friends, friends of civilization and civilians who lent us a helping hand.  

When we come to our region, Palestine today has been occupied by the Zionists for decades. What the Palestinian people suffer also here we will make a comparison between the killer and the martyr. What the Palestinian people suffer is known to everybody because of the occupation, displacement, diaspora, refugee camps inside and outside Palestine, thousands of prisoners in Israeli jails, the tremendous suffering experienced by prisoners in enemy jails and they are resisting. The last symbol of the great resistance to these prisoners is the prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash and the prisoners who accomplished a heroic act months ago [escaped from a highly fortified Israeli jail]. The real suffering weeks ago was the completion of a wall around Gaza to rule over a siege that has lasted more than 15 years. Two million people are besieged, and this killer is talking about human rights, about morals, about values, about the messages of heaven and about the dialogue of civilizations. 

There are two million people in the Gaza Strip trapped. Millions of Palestinians are displaced outside their land at home and abroad, suffering from wars, killings, assassinations and daily attacks since 1948.

Who does this? Israel? Who is the Israeli? Who is Israel? This Israeli is just a soldier for the Americans, this is an American tool. America is responsible for all the Israeli crimes in Palestine and the region.

Everything that Israel has done, and everything that Israel does, America is responsible for, because America is the one that funds Israel, supports it, arms it, protects it, and it is the one that imposes on the world to establish relations with Israel, recognize Israel, and normalize with Israel. And America is the one that terrifies all countries, most of the Arab countries and armies, so that they do not fight Israel.

The biggest and real protector of Israel in the region is the United States of America, and therefore it is responsible for all of Israel's crimes in Palestine, and here too it is responsible for all of Israel's crimes in Lebanon. It is not a simple matter. We in Lebanon talk about Israel and the resistance as if they are two sentences and we cut them off, and we quickly go to local and detailed issues. No, this is an issue related to the existence of Lebanon, the survival of Lebanon, the good things in Lebanon, the future of Lebanon, the dignity of Lebanon, the sovereignty of Lebanon, the blood of our people and our honor.

For the Lebanese also; between the killer and the martyr in Palestine, the killer is the American and the Israeli, and the martyr alongside the Palestinian martyr is the martyr Qassem Soleimani and who represents and how he represents.  

And in Lebanon, too, the discourse for the Lebanese who behave like America is a friend. Yes, we have a fundamentalist disagreement. We have a fundamental disagreement in this matter and in this issue. This is not an ordinary and simple matter; this is a larger matter than strategic discussions. All the wars Israel waged in Lebanon, the raids, the massacres it committed, the killing, wounding, destroying, emigrating, occupying, imprisoning, and torturing, Lebanon is still in the cycle of occupation, in the cycle of threat, danger and every day there is an Israeli threat. Every day an Israeli threatens to destroy Lebanon and wipe Lebanon, and the United States of America bears responsibility first and foremost for everything that Israel has done and is doing.

It is strange how we know who kills us, shoots us, occupies our land, kills our men, women and children, commits massacres, threatens the existence of our country, and that America is the one who supports it and defends it, and we look at America as a friend.

This is a calamity, this is a political disaster in awareness and insight, and let me also say in humanity, in morals, and in diagnosis. And the mistake here when you consider a friend is that you resort to him, you resort to whom you think of as a friend, and he is the worst enemy. He is the real enemy. He is the head of enmity, hatred, grudge, conspiracy, injustice, tyranny, and occupation.”

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah  
Secretary-General 
Lebanon’s Hezbollah Movement