BEIRUT (Reuters) – The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Wednesday he was pleased about “the humiliating downfall” of U.S. President Donald Trump, but urged regional allies to be on alert for any U.S. or Israeli “folly” during the rest of his term in office.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a televised speech, described Trump’s administration as “among the worst, if not the worst” in the United States, but said the new president would not alter Washington’s pro-Israel policy in the Middle East.
Describing the U.S. elections as a travesty of democracy, he accused Trump of having no restraints and said his administration’s “arrogance and aggressiveness” had heightened the possibility of war.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah leader said he derived personal pleasure at the outcome of the U.S. elections also because Trump had ordered the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
“With a person like Trump anything is possible during the remainder of his term … the axis of resistance should be in a state of high readiness to respond twice as hard in case of any American or Israeli folly,” Nasrallah said, referring to Hezbollah and Iran’s allies in the region.
The Trump administration has widened sanctions against Hezbollah, which Washington deems a terrorist group, and its Lebanese allies as part of a maximum pressure campaign against Iran that heightened regional tensions.
Nasrallah said U.S. sanctions imposed last week on Gebran Bassil, the son-in-law of Lebanon’s president, over charges of corruption and ties to Hezbollah were part of Washington’s efforts to pressure the armed movement’s political allies.
(Reporting by Ellen Francis and Laila Bassam; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; editing by Grant McCool)
