‘Complete silence’ from Hezbollah on Nasrallah's death

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00:00There has been no confirmation and no statement by Hezbollah whatsoever or by any Lebanese

00:05government official.

00:08There is complete silence on the side of Lebanon and Hezbollah in terms of what has been going

00:14on over the past 18 hours.

00:17In particular, there is something very important, which is the fact that yesterday evening we

00:23saw Israel carpet bombing an entire neighborhood, six buildings turned into rubble in a matter

00:29of seconds before they deployed a bunker buster bomb deep into the ground, supposedly where

00:35Nasrallah and other senior military commanders from Hezbollah were meeting.

00:40Shortly after that, a few hours later, we saw evacuation calls by the Israeli army for

00:45the residents of Beirut's southern suburbs to evacuate their neighborhoods.

00:49Shortly after that, we also saw Israel bombing intensively a number of buildings in the southern

00:57suburbs of Beirut without even evacuation calls for those buildings, unlike the buildings

01:03which we saw earlier.

01:04However, things have in general calmed down in the past two hours, at least when it comes

01:10to the intensity of the bombing on Beirut's southern suburbs.

01:15There is a lot of anticipation of what could be happening next, a lot of talk about potential

01:23diplomatic efforts to head towards de-escalation, a lot of uncertainty, many questions to be

01:29answered.

01:30Who will be leading the organization after Nasrallah if he was confirmed dead by Hezbollah

01:35within the next few hours?

01:37Will the organization continue its war against Israel given such a destabilized status quo

01:44following the assassination of the entire elite force of the Ridwan unit, following

01:51the potential assassination of Secretary General Nasrallah and other commanders?

01:57What is the fate of the organization internally within the Lebanese status quo?

02:03There's just a lot of uncertainty and absolutely no statements whatsoever by Hezbollah or by

02:08any Lebanese governmental official.

02:10Now, we know for a fact that caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called for a special

02:15session for the cabinet later this evening at 7.30 p.m. local time in Beirut.

02:21After landing from New York where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly, the general

02:27tone of the Lebanese government is heading towards de-escalation, calling for the implementation

02:32of the UN Resolutions 1701, which in itself calls for demilitarization of the southern

02:41part of Lebanon, in particular south of Litani.

02:45We also know for a fact that it seems there is some sort of diplomatic work that's being

02:49done in the background by the Qataris and Egyptians with a proposal that would be directed

02:56towards the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Speaker of Parliament, Nabi

03:00Berri, in order to de-escalate the situation and not lead into an all-out long war.

03:06Rawad, the word of the day, obviously, uncertainty until we get confirmations about Hassan Nasrallah's

03:12status.

03:13But give us some context about his role in Hezbollah and how much of a bloat would be

03:18if he were confirmed dead.

03:21So this is the man that has been leading the organization for the past 32 years, so at

03:26least three decades leading the organization.

03:28He's witnessed the organization's growth from a small guerrilla of fighters trained in the

03:34Bekaa Valley to one of the largest militias of the world.

03:39This is the man who fought the 1996 war.

03:43This is the man who witnessed the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in

03:48the year 2000 and declared victory.

03:51This is the man who also declared, according to his own perspective, victory in the July

03:56War of 2006.

03:58This is the man who sent his troops to Syria in 2011, 2012, and 2013 to defend the regime

04:05of Bashar al-Assad.

04:08This is when it comes to fighting Israel and the local geopolitical scene.

04:12This is the man who led the organization in multiple instances of local fighting, most

04:19notably in the year of 2008 when the government of Lebanon back then was aiming to deconstruct

04:28or remove Hezbollah's telecommunication network.

04:32Back then Hezbollah as an organization invaded the capital within hours and took control

04:38of the city for a number of days before mediation efforts resulted in the Doha agreement and

04:43the election of a new president and the formation of a new government in Lebanon.

04:47So this is the man who's been behind it all for the past 32 years.

04:52Definitely if true, it's a very big moral blow to the supporters of the organization.

04:57It will change the internal landscape, of course, of Lebanon.

05:01And again, the main questions that need to be answered today, what is the future of Hezbollah

05:05in this current conflict without Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, if he was confirmed

05:10by Hezbollah and by Lebanese officials to be officially assassinated in yesterday's

05:15carpet bombing of Dahir?

05:17Aruwad, real quickly, as news of this alleged killing of Nasrallah ripples throughout the

05:24capital, what's the reaction been from the people of Beirut?

05:28Uncertainty.

05:29Uncertainty is the word.

05:31There's not a lot of comments.

05:33Everyone is anticipating to see whether there would be an official announcement by Hezbollah

05:39or by affiliated news agencies within the next hours.

05:43Others are uncertain and are not commenting, and even those who generally oppose Hezbollah

05:49or who sit on the opposition currently in Lebanon, we've seen no statements from them

05:54whatsoever.

05:55Uncertainty is the word that describes the scene today.

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