At a condolence meeting held for slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in New Delhi’s India Islamic Cultural Centre, attendees were heard chanting slogans like ‘America Murdabad’ along with slogans commemorating the slain Lebanese militant group chief.
US President Joe Biden had described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the United States fully supported Israel’s right to self-defence.
The event was also attended by Iranian ambassador to India, Dr Iraj Elahi, and Palestinian envoy to India. Adnan Al-Hija.
‘America Murdabad’ slogan raised at India Islamic Centre in New Delhi during the condolence meet of Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah— Siddhant Mishra (@siddhantvm) September 30, 2024
The videos, accessed by News18 and also going viral on social media, show a speaker criticising the US and Israel for the ongoing conflicts in West Asia.
In one of the videos, one man from the audience is seen rallying the rest into cries of ‘America Murdabad’ (Death to the US). People are heard joining in and chanting the slogans as the prayer meeting proceeds.
“Hezbollah is not a terrorist group. Hezbollah is a political party. Hezbollah is strong enough to defend itself. We have never denied the support of Iran for Hezbollah,” the Iranian envoy, Elahi, told News18.
While talking to News18, on the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Ambassador of Iran to India Dr Iraj Elahi says: “The martyrdom of Hassan Nasrullah as a great leader, great politician of Lebanon and well-known man in the world is not a small thing. It’s a big loss for all human beings…, not just for Muslims, not just for Shias, not just for Lebanese, for all our Arabs.”
“It is a loss for all people in the world. Hezbollah is a political party. It is not a terrorist group. They are calling Hezbollah a terrorist group to justify their massacre, blood shedding and attacks on innocent people and their hostility in the region… The main solution is to stop invasion and military attack by Israel… We hope that not only India but all countries use their influence on Israel to stop its invasion of Palestine and Lebanon to maintain the peace,” added Elahi.
Israel killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a powerful airstrike in Beirut, dealing a heavy blow to the Iran-backed group as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had eliminated Nasrallah in the strike on the group’s central command headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday. Hezbollah confirmed he had been killed, without saying how.
Nasrallah’s death is a major blow to both Hezbollah and Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the killing of Nasrallah as a necessary step toward “changing the balance of power in the region for years to come.”
“Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said in a statement, warning of challenging days ahead.
CEASEFIRE UNLIKELY, SAYS PALESTINIAN ENVOY
Speaking on the issue of ceasefire, Elahi told News18 that the ceasefire decision will be taken by warring parties Israel and Hezbollah.
“This issue is between Israel and Hezbollah. But, Iran always has supported the ceasefire and we have called to stop attacks and military operations,” he said.
Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting a conflict in parallel with Israel’s war against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza since Hamas’ attack on Israel last October 7, in a cross-border confrontation that has sharply escalated in recent days.
More than 1,000 people have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, Gaza’s Health Ministry said, and about one million Lebanese have been displaced by the strikes, including hundreds of thousands since Friday, Nasser Yassin, the minister coordinating the government’s crisis response, told Reuters on Saturday.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel for almost a year, in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas have been fighting since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing about 250 hostages, going by Israeli tallies.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced by the war, in which more than 41,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities.
Palestinian envoy Adnan Al-Hija, who was on stage with the panellists at the condolence prayer meeting, said a ceasefire is unlikely, referring to the war in Gaza.
“With this (Israeli) government we do not feel this is possible. Even America, which is supporting Israel with the most modern weapons, has called for a ceasefire and this extreme government has not listened,” Al-Hija told News18.
(with inputs from Siddhant Mishra and agencies)
