Full story
Unity Week, Gaza-linked rhetoric
Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem used Unity Week remarks to praise what he described as the resilience of the Iranian nation during “three wars of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and he framed the same theme as a revival of the Palestinian cause.
““The United States and Israel have failed in three wars against the Islamic Republic of Iran due to the unity and resilience of the Iranian nation,””
In his speech, Qassem said, “The United States and Israel have failed in three wars against the Islamic Republic of Iran due to the unity and resilience of the Iranian nation,” and he warned that enemies would not achieve their objectives “no matter what sacrifices we might have to make or how many casualties we might sustain.”
Qassem also tied the Palestinian cause to regional political unity, saying “Palestinians have made tremendous sacrifices with their money, weapons and possessions in their struggle against the Tel Aviv regime and Washington,” and he said such unity is reflected in Lebanon through “the close connections between Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, and all political factions.”
He further argued that “disagreements among Muslim governments should not open up an internal front,” and he urged Muslims to focus on what he called their “principal enemies.”
Calls for unity and strike
A separate report on Hezbollah’s Unity Week messaging said Qassem urged unity on Palestine and described the Palestinian cause as “an Islamic, national, pan-Arab, and humanitarian one,” while calling on Arab and Islamic countries “not to stand idly by while enemies enter our region and our brothers suffer.”
In another account of the same Unity Week speech, a Hezbollah official said the practical unity associated with “our martyred Imam, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei” revived the Palestinian issue as the foremost and overriding issue of the Muslim world.
Qassem’s warnings against division among Muslims were repeated in multiple write-ups, including a version that said, “Differences among Muslims should not create an internal rift or distract us from our main enemy.”
The same framing appeared in coverage that emphasized the need to translate unity from theory to practice, stating that “this unity rests on two pillars: coordination, practical interaction and cooperation on the one hand, and unified and collective confrontation with the enemy on the other.”
What’s at stake, per sources
Several sources present Qassem’s Unity Week message as linking the Palestinian issue to broader regional stakes, with one report saying the practical unity “kept the Palestinian issue alive” and warning that “Differences among Muslims should not create an internal rift or distract us from our main enemy.”
““As long as we remain firm and steadfast, the enemy will not be able to realise its projects and programmes,””
In a Tehran datelined item, Mehr News Agency said Qassem told listeners that the late Imam Khamenei revived the Palestinian cause through “practical unity,” and it quoted him saying, “As long as we remain firm and steadfast, the enemy will not be able to realise its projects and programmes.”
The same line of argument was echoed in a longer account that said the Palestinian issue must form a “محور for the unity of the Islamic nation,” and it asserted that “What was given to Palestine was money, weapons, blood, confrontation, and a shared enemy with the Israeli enemy and, alongside it, the American enemy.”
Across these accounts, Qassem’s central warning was that retreat would mean defeat, with one version stating, “any retreat before the enemy will lead to our destruction,” and another saying steadfastness would “halt the enemy’s advance and pave the way to recover our position.”