http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GqN28vmdoK0
Speech by Ahmad Mouaz Al-Khatib, President of the Syrian National Coalition, directed to Mr. Hassan Nasrallah, General Secretary of Hezbollah
In the name of God the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
To Mr. Hassan Nasrallah, the General Secretary of Hezbollah – Lebanon
Peace be upon all who stretch their hands out to the truth, and who stop the flowing of blood, and honours humanity.
It is no secret to you that the region is being drawn into a crises maybe none will be saved from, and that there is an effort towards the fragmentation of the region and the commencement of a terrifying sectarian conflict that would last for tens of years.
I do not believe in war, and I consider it as a degradation of our humanity, and that understanding one another is the only way to solve problems between individuals and between societies. Nations should not be deceived by their power and might, for how many a great Empire was dismantled and destroyed because of their conceit.
Have over one thousand years of Sunni-Shia strife and disputes not been enough for us to bury this rigid mentality and to leave behind these illusions of victory over one another.
In the July war (2006) the Syrian people opened their homes and their hearts for the Lebanese resistance despite some creed differences, because we were certain they were blocking an attack from an aggressive enemy and even the flags of Hezbollah were raised in our streets. During that time the Syrian people gave from their daily earnings and bread to their Lebanese brothers and sisters, is this (invasion of Syria) the gift that you give as a reward to those generous and charitable people?
Indeed, the invasion of Hezbollah into Syria has complicated matters greatly while I had expected from someone with your political and social weight to have personally become a positive factor in the cessation of the shedding of Syrian blood.
Is it satisfying to you that the Syrian regime shells it citizens with fighter planes and Scud missiles; mixing the blood and flesh of children with the bread; is it pleasing to you that thousands of women have been raped? As well as the killing of hundreds of children and them being tortured to death? Is it acceptable to you that the Syrian people have lived under tyrant rule for fifty years, and when they stood up and asked for their freedom many world forces intervened and they were punished with the complete destruction of their infrastructure, the uprooting of their communities, becoming displaced and exiled, and the mass murdering of them, putting them into a frightening spiralling plot which they cannot escape from, that was made into a reality by the regime.
Is the prophet’s households’ doctrine the upholding and the defence of truth, or to defend a tyrant and reckless regime? And in this case it is the Syrian people who resemble the oppressed and martyred Imam Al Hussain, and it is none other than the violent regime who is the murdering offender.
I will say to you with all honesty: some of the stances that are being taken by some your officials will make part of your ideology responsible for a historical disorder, for moral bankruptcy, and some of the stances of some members of your party has caused a tidal wave of atheism that has began to invade generations: those stances, in my opinion, cannot be affiliated in any way to the prophet’s household (peace be upon them).
The consciences of the people can no longer go on, and the invitation by the two respected scholars, Al Rifai and Al Aseer, (towards defending the Syrian people) was nothing but a response to the chilling events that are occurring from the butchering of civilians and the gushing of blood, to the screams of the women in the prisons.
The alleged claim of the defence of Shia towns in Syria is unacceptable, for have they ever been under any threat in the past hundreds of years? And is Syria an area of conflict in which each power will come to defend a certain faction? I do not wish to enter into a never ending debate, and I do not want to recall what happened to some women at the hands of the criminals of the regime in a certain town which was a different sect to theirs and which they took advantage of by killing the women in order to protect themselves. Is this difference of sects the reason why all this is happening? And are there in Darya and Qaboun, which are at the sides of Damascus, any Shia villages in which they use as an excuse to come and protect the Shias in addition to them raising their flags in these towns?
Despite all this I will say to you what I have said previously in the media; that there is a massive plot to drag the whole world of Islam into a Sunni-Shia war beginning from Syria, then to Lebanon and then to the rest of the region including Iran and Turkey in order to destroy the region, and to consume completely the money in the Gulf states in order to fund this massive war and the purchasing of weapons to fuel this war in which there will be no victor.
From my modest experience in politics, but vast experience in life I have found that politicians are from the people who are not the most intelligent, are not aware of major threats that surround their countries, are the least to feel empathy towards others’ pains. Those politicians have contributed massively to all of the world wars, and while taking part in them seen nothing but their own interests, and thought they could control the situation in whatever way they wanted, with false victories causing them to become conceited, all the while consuming their nations and their people, and they didn’t realise that beginning a war is not the same as ending one.
With all honesty I say to you: the freedom fighters in Syria have enough courage to cover the whole earth, however the blood of your sons in Lebanon should not be wasted while fighting our oppressed sons in Syria, and there are some who are pleased with their fighting one another, and I demand that you withdraw all Hezbollah troops from Syria, and to begin communicating with the revolutionists in all Shia villages to secure the safety for all.
Is there not enough of an example in what happened during the long and brutal war between Iraq and Iran? Is it not enough for the Lebanese to have suffered an insane war which had lasted continuously for fifteen years, and in which the effects of it are still being felt until today. Are the streams of tears of mothers not enough, or the pains of the widows, or the mourning of the children and the orphans…has all the killing of the souls and the bodies not been enough!!
I am not addressing the politician in you, nor the leader, rather I am calling to your conscience and heart, to your mind and wisdom, to Syria and Lebanon. I hope from you and from the two scholars Al Rifai and Al Aseer to meet and to understand one another to prevent our country from a coming calamity and for all of us to be good will ambassadors and become positive factors in ending the conflict and not to ignite a war.
Let us be concerned about one thing only…that we do not lose our humanity…
Ahmad Mouaz Al-Khatib Al-Hassani
President of the Syrian National Coalition
