Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday urged Syrians to back President Bashar al-Assad while calling for the rejection of sanctions imposed on Damascus over a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests. In a televised speech, the head of the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant group also accused US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dealing the final blow to a 2002 Saudi peace plan.
"We call on all Syrians to preserve their country as well as the ruling regime, a regime of resistance, and to give their leaders a chance to cooperate with all Syria's communities in order to implement the necessary reforms," he said in the speech broadcast by his party's Al-Manar television. The speech, marking the 11th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon after a 22-year occupation, was broadcast on a giant screen to thousands of Hezbollah supporters in the village of Nabi Sheet, a Shiite stronghold in the eastern Bekaa Valley.