Nasrallah: US remains ‘Great Satan’ before and after nuke deal

Hezbollah is proud to be backed by Iran, certain it can still rely on Iranian support, and still regards the US as the “Great Satan,” the Lebanese terrorist group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday, dismissing concerns that Tehran would revise its policies toward the Shiite organization following the signing of a nuclear agreement with world powers.

“We deal with trust and complete assurance over this,” Nasrallah said during a ceremony to honor the children of Hezbollah terrorists killed in battle, according to Reuters. Iran’s continued support allows Hezbollah to resist Israeli and US policies in the region, he said.

“The US will forever remain the Great Satan, before and after the nuclear agreement, because the resistance will defend its territory, and this is a resistance against the Zionist project,” Nasrallah said.

The Hezbollah head criticized the US for its continued designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group, and stated that the imposition of new sanctions against three of the organization’s military leaders believed to be involved in operations in Syria would have no impact on the group.

Last week in Vienna, Iran and the so-called P5+1 world powers agreed to a deal that limits the regime’s nuclear program in exchange for an end to crippling economic sanctions.

Israel has been fiercely critical of the nuclear deal, arguing that the deal paves Iran’s path to the bomb and that the money Iran receives, as sanctions are lifted, will be used to sponsor terror and destabilize the region.

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Director General Dore Gold said Israel anticipates a “major escalation” of Iranian-backed terror attacks on its borders as a direct result of the nuclear agreement.

Although he did not detail the specific threats for Israel that could be impacted, or list specific accommodations that Israel sought to counter the threats, Gold warned that “the moment that the funds become available from frozen accounts [after the removal of sanctions on Iran] … that’s when the Middle East goes south and things become extremely dangerous in the region.”

The release of $150 billion of frozen funds would free Iran from having to choose which terror activities to support, Gold said. Iranian troops and their proxies in the region “will have an ability to be everywhere simultaneously.”

While Hezbollah has been operating in Lebanon since the 1980s, its recent involvement in the Syrian civil war — on the side of the Assad regime — has brought its forces to the Golan Heights, where altercations between the group’s fighters and IDF troops have already taken place.