'Sheer hypocrisy': Biden administration 'fully backing, enabling, empowering Netanyahu government'
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It's 10 p.m. here in Paris. Welcome to our special edition on World Roundup.
00:09Hezbollah's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah is killed by Israeli airstrikes, the most
00:13powerful target eliminated by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting. Prime Minister Benjamin
00:18Netanyahu says his assassination was essential for Israel to achieve its goals.
00:25Iran declares five days of mourning with its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei saying
00:29the blood of Nasrallah will not go unavenged. U.S. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, calls
00:34the Israeli strike on Nasrallah a measure of justice.
00:40Israeli strikes continue this Saturday in southern Beirut. Thousands continue to flee
00:45their homes, with hundreds of families sleeping in public squares and beaches around the city
00:49as of Saturday morning.
01:05It's been several hours since the confirmation of the news that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
01:10has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. The strike hit what the IDF says was
01:16the group's central command headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of the Lebanese capital.
01:21Nasrallah led Hezbollah for more than three decades and was by far the most powerful target
01:26to be killed by Israel in the weeks of intensified fighting. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued
01:32in Beirut this Saturday as thousands of residents evacuate the city.
01:39Air raid sirens have also been sounding across central Israel, including at the Tel Aviv airport.
01:45The IDF said a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted shortly after the sirens were
01:50heard. There have been no reported injuries so far. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu has
01:55given his first public remarks since the killing, saying that the assassination of Nasrallah
02:00was a quote essential condition for Israel to achieve its war goals.
02:07Nasrallah's elimination is an essential condition to achieve the goals we were setting, returning
02:11northern residents safely back to their homes and changing the regional balance of power
02:15for years. Anyone who hit us, we will hit them. There is no place in Iran or in the
02:23Middle East that Israel's long arm cannot reach and today you know how much that is
02:27true.
02:28Our reporter Clare Pakkilan has more details on that address from Jerusalem.
02:36The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been speaking saying that the elimination
02:42of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah group, was a necessary step to change the
02:49balance of power in the Middle East. He also said that our work is not done and that challenging
02:57days lie ahead. Now what could be in those challenging days? We understand that Israel
03:03is working hard. The IDF, the Israel Defence Forces, are working hard to try to make sure
03:09Hezbollah does not rearm itself and replenish weapons stock because Israel has been targeting
03:15weapons stocks around Lebanon and trying to eliminate those stocks of munitions and weapons.
03:21But if Hezbollah is able to rearm itself quickly, well that's going to be a problem for Israel.
03:26Israel is at one point targeting areas and has been targeting areas this week on the
03:31Lebanese-Syrian border. We also know that Israel has been very clear, we heard that
03:36from the IDF spokesman last night, saying that Beirut airport is a civilian airport
03:41and it needs to stay that way. Of course the big question is could Israel launch a ground
03:48offensive into Lebanon? We've heard from Yoav Galant, the Israeli Defence Minister, he's
03:53been making an assessment this evening as to how ready the IDF is to expand offensive
04:01activity on the northern front. We know Israel has moved combat troops into position on the
04:07northern border with Lebanon, but does that mean a ground operation is on the cards? Well
04:14it looks like it's still on the table, but there's a question mark as to whether it will
04:18be given the green light or not. And now help us get an idea of how the news of the killing
04:23of Nasrallah is being perceived by the people in Israel. I mean do they see this as a victory
04:28or is it more the fear that this may spiral even further? It's a mix, certainly politically
04:38and among people I've been speaking to on the ground when I was in Haifa, a coastal
04:43city in the north of Israel, people telling me that they feel this is good news for Israel,
04:48the killing of Hassan Nasrallah is a good news for Israel, it will help secure Israel's
04:52northern border with Lebanon, hopefully allow Israelis who've been evacuated for nearly
04:57a year now to return to their homes, for those who are still living there to live without
05:02the threat of rocket fire. That's the hope, but of course people are also concerned about
05:09the reaction that could come from Hezbollah, from the Houthis in Yemen, from Iran as well.
05:15Of course we know Hezbollah is significantly degraded, but that doesn't mean that in some
05:20cells in the south of Lebanon there aren't people there, there aren't Hezbollah fighters
05:26who can't launch rockets into Israel, they can and they have been doing that today, we've
05:30had air raid sirens going off across northern Israel as well as parts of central Israel
05:35as well again today. So Hezbollah is not out of the game yet, the future, who could replace
05:41Hassan Nasrallah, could a new head grow is the expression people are using here, could
05:46two heads grow is the expression people are using here to replace Hassan Nasrallah, that
05:52is the question. Where do we go from here? But in the words of the Israeli Prime Minister,
05:56challenging days lie ahead. But what are those challenging days going to look like? That's
06:01the question here.
06:03Now the assassination has sparked grief and anger across the Middle East. In Iran, protesters
06:08say they want revenge against Israel, with others saying they were prepared to take up
06:12arms. Siobhan Silk has more.
06:19Iran's Supreme Leader has promised vengeance for Hassan Nasrallah's killing. For these
06:24protesters in Tehran, it's the only way to respond.
06:32We only want retaliation. Compromise will not work anymore. Just retaliation. We can't escape
06:38the trap of escalation. We must go forward. We are all ready.
06:45We must support each other. We should be united and we should retaliate. We want a
06:49quick retaliation. We will definitely take revenge.
06:55Iran, Hezbollah's closest state ally, is now in five days of official mourning. While in
07:02Iraq, MPs openly wept in parliament as they read tributes to Nasrallah and calls for revenge.
07:12We say to you, O leader of the resistance, we will continue on your path, seeking revenge
07:19for you and all the martyrs. Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah is all of us. Every Iraqi is Hassan
07:26Nasrallah and every member of our parliament is Nasrallah.
07:30In Gaza, there's grief among some displaced Palestinians. The people Hassan Nasrallah
07:34said he was supporting with Hezbollah's intensifying strikes on Israel.
07:41The news is like a thunderbolt. We're losing a great leader in the resistance, whom we
07:49were proud of, who defended the Palestinian people.
07:54We're very sad, of course, because he supported the Palestinian people a lot, especially in
07:59this time of war that we're going through right now.
08:03For many Gazans, Hassan Nasrallah was a strong ally at a time they feel abandoned by much
08:08of the Arab world.
08:12Hezbollah has given no indication of who might be in line to succeed Nasrallah, but a name
08:17that's been floated is senior commander of the group Hashem Safi Adin. Nicholas Rushworth
08:23tells us more now on the men who could possibly be next in charge.
08:27He is widely regarded as number two in the Hezbollah hierarchy. Hashem Safi Adin, according
08:35to a source in the Iran-backed group, survived the Israeli attack that killed Hassan Nasrallah.
08:41If so, he is heir apparent. Speaking on the 18th of September, he vowed revenge for those
08:47killed in pager explosions.
08:51This aggression inevitably has its own punishment. It has its own retribution. This punishment
09:00will come, God willing.
09:04Safi Adin heads the group's executive council and oversees its political affairs. He's also
09:10a member of the Jihad Council, which directs its military operations, and is a cousin of
09:14Hassan Nasrallah. He wears a black turban that indicates he is a descendant of the Prophet
09:20Mohammed.
09:22Born in southern Lebanon in 1964, he completed his religious studies in Iran. He and members
09:27of his family have close ties with Tehran. The US State Department designated him a terrorist
09:33in 2017. Those familiar with Hezbollah say it's never been without a back-up leadership,
09:40and that Hashem Safi Adin was prepared from 1994 to be Nasrallah's successor.
10:04Yes, so they're really continuing. It hasn't stopped. We slept yesterday during the night
10:21with the bombing, and we woke up in the southern part of the city, and other parts of the city
10:33in the country, there are now a million Lebanese citizens that have sought shelter, that had
10:43to fled their house. So you have the war, the ongoing war, without any break, and you
10:50have the displaced people. So really, we are in a state of near chaos. We are in a state
11:04where there is a sense of shock, consideration, after what's happening, and it's being into
11:11the unknown. No one has any idea of what might happen.
11:18And tell us about the reaction from Hezbollah today, and how residents in Beirut have been
11:22reacting to the news as well.
11:30Reaction has been different according to where you are in Beirut, of course. In the state
11:43of Beirut, it's not completely able to believe the news. It seems out of this reality, it
11:51seems unbelievable that Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah is dead. So there is the kind of reaction
11:59there is shock, there is consideration, there is sadness. And another part of the country
12:05also is very much scared of what may happen in the future, whether we're talking about
12:11who's going to replace Hassan Nasrallah, what to become of the party, or the response that
12:19might come from Iran or Hezbollah leadership. So there's a mixture of feelings, sadness,
12:27shock and fear. Those are very strong feelings tonight in Beirut.
12:41The death of Nasrallah deals a major blow to Hezbollah, which has been hit multiple
12:45times since Israel's attack on its pages last week. France 74's Camille Knight takes us
12:50through the last 10 days.
12:55The coordinated explosion of pages on the 17th of September sent shockwaves through
13:00Lebanon and marked the start of a downward spiral for the Hezbollah militant group. At
13:05least a dozen people were killed that day, with thousands more injured, Hezbollah calling
13:10it the biggest security breach in nearly a year of cross-border fire with Israel.
13:15The following day, it was their walkie-talkies that exploded, killing over 20 people and
13:20deepening unease among the militant group. Just two days after that, senior commander
13:25Ibrahim Aqeel was killed in a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs. A dozen other commanders
13:31were killed in the attack, as well as a number of civilians.
13:38We have entered a new phase that we could call an open reckoning. From now on, we will
13:46kill and fight Israelis wherever they are and beyond.
13:55On Monday the 23rd of September, Israel began launching strikes across Lebanon, taking aim
14:01at 1,600 different locations that the military claimed were Hezbollah strongholds. With over
14:07500 people killed in 24 hours, many were civilians.
14:13I have a message for the people of Lebanon. Israel's war is not with you. It's with Hezbollah.
14:20For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your
14:25living rooms and missiles in your garage.
14:28At this stage, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Galant said the Red One forces had been decimated
14:34and whole Hezbollah units neutralised, leaving their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, isolated.
14:40The strikes continued throughout the week, culminating in the killing of Nasrallah on
14:44Saturday.
14:45He was an immediate threat to the life of thousands of Israelis and other citizens.
14:52After confirming his death, the IDF boasted that it had killed all but one from Hezbollah's
14:57military chain of command. For more than 30 years, Nasrallah had been the beating heart
15:02of Hezbollah. His death a significant blow to the group that its fighters and allies
15:08will be seeking to avenge.
15:11The US President Joe Biden has reacted to today's events, calling the Israeli strike
15:16that killed Nasrallah a measure of justice for his many victims.
15:20For more on Washington's reaction, let's get an update from our correspondent Fraser Jackson
15:24who is standing by.
15:26Fraser, tell us more about the US's reaction to today's events.
15:32Joe Biden has convened a call with Vice President Harris and his national security team. They
15:37are being kept abreast of the situation, this as Kamala Harris continues to campaign and
15:43fundraise in California this Saturday.
15:45But Joe Biden released that statement earlier in the day, saying Hassan Nasrallah and the
15:50terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade
15:56reign of terror.
15:57His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims.
16:01He then continued, however,
16:03Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon
16:08through diplomatic means.
16:10He then mentioned those ceasefire agreements that the US has been working so hard on over
16:14the last couple of months.
16:16He said it is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed and
16:21for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.
16:24That also being backed up by Vice President Harris as well, who said that President Biden
16:29and I do not want to see conflict in the Middle East escalate into a broader regional
16:33war.
16:34Diplomacy remains the best path forward to protect civilians and achieve lasting stability
16:39in the region.
16:40The US State Department also ordering non-essential workers at its embassy in Beirut to evacuate
16:45the country, to leave, and also along with the family members of those who are working
16:51in that mission as well.
16:52Biden also ordering the Department of Defense to rethink the defensive force posture in
16:58the region to try to deter any more attacks happening from outside of Israel.
17:04And that is something that we are learning was at the behest of the Israeli Defense Minister
17:09Yoav Galant in a call to Lloyd Austin on Friday.
17:13He asked Lloyd Austin to consider changing operational stances and also to release statements
17:21to deter the Iranians from getting involved in this attack.
17:26The story comes just days after the US pushed for a ceasefire, Netanyahu seemingly defying
17:33Washington yet again.
17:34How has that been taken by the US?
17:36Yeah, this has been a constant source of frustration for the Americans.
17:42There's many times that Netanyahu clearly says something to them in private and then
17:46when things go public, he bolts and changes his mind.
17:51We're hearing from various sources that Joe Biden felt somewhat humiliated by the recent
17:58pushback that Netanyahu gave against the 21-day ceasefire plan that the US put forward with
18:05some of its allies just days ago.
18:08And in private, Joe Biden has long railed against Netanyahu for seemingly going against
18:15his word and going against what Joe Biden believes is in the best interest of the Israeli
18:20people and seemingly putting Netanyahu's own political aims above the will of the people
18:27of Israel as well.
18:29There is also, we're also learning from a source as well that since this happened on
18:34Friday that Joe Biden has not spoken directly to Netanyahu himself.
18:39He has had contact through various members of the US government, through Lloyd Austin
18:44and Secretary Blinken and so on, people like that.
18:48Directly, he's had no actual contact with Netanyahu since these events took place.
18:53And there is a sense here that the Biden administration does approve of the killing of Nasrallah,
19:02but that they are actually railing more against the fact that there was no warning given to
19:07the US administration and no transparency given to the US administration as well from
19:12the Israelis.
19:13All right.
19:14Thank you very much for that.
19:15Fraser Jackson in Washington.
19:19Well, let's get an international perspective now with Gilbert Achka.
19:24He's a professor of international relations at Sowers University of London.
19:28Thank you so much for joining us here on France 24.
19:31There have been months of diplomatic efforts, including many trips made by the US Secretary
19:36of State Antony Blinken to the Middle East, multiple efforts to negotiate ceasefire talks.
19:41But despite international efforts, the conflict just seems to be spiraling day by day.
19:46Is there any possible way to find a diplomatic solution and deescalate here?
19:50Yes, but precisely, let me comment on what you just said.
19:55You are right that there has been all these efforts at finding some kind of diplomatic
20:00solution.
20:02And the last was this proposal of a 21 day ceasefire.
20:07So that shows you the fallacy of describing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, because
20:18you don't deal with a terrorist organization in that way.
20:21You don't try to get diplomatic solutions with a terrorist organization, and you don't
20:26seek ceasefire with a terrorist organization, which is exactly what the US administration
20:31has been doing for several months, actually.
20:36So I mean, Hezbollah is an organization with several MPs.
20:41It's a mass organization.
20:43And to call that terrorist and to justify by this label, this assassination and what
20:51has been going on for several days in Lebanon, including a lot of civilians being killed
21:00or maimed by that.
21:01This is that shows you that the United States is actually fully backing Israel in what it's
21:08doing and not trying to put any serious pressure on the Netanyahu government.
21:16Now as an expansion of a wider conflict, a wider regional conflict that we've been fearing
21:21for months now, and there are so many parties involved, including Iranian proxies, I mean,
21:26break it down for us.
21:27How do you see this playing out in the region?
21:29Yes, exactly.
21:31And the Netanyahu government is taking huge risks of igniting regional conflagration,
21:41and that would involve the United States.
21:44And so the United States could be driven to such a regional conflagration by the will
21:52of the Netanyahu government.
21:54And, you know, I mean, the assassination of Nasrallah, whatever view you have of Hezbollah,
22:02he definitely was in relative terms to what the organization, a moderate leader in the
22:09sense that ever since 2006, he, I mean, the war that happened in 2006, he hasn't tried
22:19to send his troops across the border and do, for instance, what happened on 7 October
22:26in Gaza.
22:28And in his latest or one of his latest speeches, he emphasized the fact that they do not target
22:35civilians in Israel.
22:39They try to focus on military targets.
22:42So I mean, his killing, the same goes for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the former
22:50leader of Hamas was assassinated in Tehran.
22:53These are figures who are relatively moderate people, and the tendency would be to replace
22:58them with people who are quite more radical than them.
23:03So it's clear that the Israeli government is not seeking peace.
23:07It's trying to destroy by force and humiliate all its opponents in the region.
23:14It's not trying to find any kind of compromise.
23:17And that is leading the whole region towards the abyss.
23:23And you say Israel doesn't want peace.
23:26And I want to continue with that a little bit, because Israel's actions have been increasingly
23:30bellicose.
23:31And we saw Netanyahu doubling down and defending those actions at the UN General Assembly.
23:36So the question has to be asked, does Netanyahu want diplomacy?
23:41Yes, absolutely.
23:43You're absolutely right.
23:44This speech at the UN was extremely bellicose.
23:49It's the most, I mean, it was insulting.
23:54I mean, he used insulting terms to not only against the usual opponents of the state of
24:02Israel, but against the whole assembly, you know, and three quarters of them had walked
24:08out.
24:09He just called the whole UN anti-Semitic.
24:11I mean, this kind of discourse that shows you the kind of political perspective that
24:17this person represents.
24:20And he definitely is not seeking peace, except with, you know, with part of the Arab world.
24:29And even those he is ignoring the fact that even the Saudi kingdom now is explaining that
24:35there can't be any kind of establishment of diplomatic relations without the emergence
24:42of a Palestinian state.
24:45He is trying to ignore all that.
24:47So what he is doing is not only not going to produce any further steps towards peace,
24:55but it's even going to dismantle whatever had been achieved until now.
25:01So Israel, of course, has the backing of the US, but it's also increasingly stigmatized
25:06on the world stage.
25:07So do you think it can continue what it's doing given this?
25:11Well, as long as you have Joe Biden, who is the first American president, to my knowledge,
25:19to have declared himself in the past a Zionist, not only a pro-Israel, but a Zionist himself.
25:28As long as you have Joe Biden, who has been fully backing the whole war that started after
25:36the 7th of October attack, who has provided Israel with everything it used in this war
25:46without the US support, this war would not have been possible.
25:51It's actually the first joint US-Israeli war.
25:55And yesterday, again, in the middle of what was going on in Lebanon, we heard that the
26:01Biden administration offered a close to $9 billion military aid package to Israel.
26:11So the United States, whatever the Biden administration is saying, is, sorry to say,
26:16but is sheer hypocrisy.
26:19They are actually fully backing, enabling, empowering the Netanyahu government in what it is doing.
26:27Right.
26:28Gilbert Aschke, Professor of International Relations at Soos University of London, thank
26:32you so much for sharing your thoughts with us here on the program.
26:35We appreciate it very much.
26:38Now Iran has announced that a prominent general and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was
26:42killed in the same airstrike.
26:44Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has announced five days of national mourning.
26:48Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has also declared three days of mourning over the news.
26:54Well, Khamenei has called on the groups forming its so-called Axis of Resistance to step up
27:00their attacks on Israel.
27:03Shirley Sitbon has a look now at this network of Iranian proxies.
27:09Iran sees the network of armed groups it has formed across the Middle East as the Axis
27:15of Resistance.
27:17This was the statement of Iran's Supreme Leader read out on television after Hassan Nasrallah
27:22was killed.
27:26The fate of this region will be decided by the resistance forces with Hezbollah at their
27:30head.
27:34Iran's enemies see these proxies as a threatening alliance.
27:38They're Iran's way of confronting them indirectly.
27:42Not just Israel and the United States, but also its rivals in the region.
27:47The most powerful group in the Axis remains Hezbollah.
27:52Its militants carried out terrorist attacks on US and French forces in the past.
27:58In recent years, it has focused on fighting Israel and on backing President Bashar al-Assad,
28:04another Iran ally, during the war in Syria.
28:09In Gaza, the Axis comprises of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
28:13In Iraq, pro-Iranian Islamic Resistance militias have joined the Axis.
28:20And in Yemen, the Houthi militia.
28:23Since October 7th, those groups have all tried to hit the Israeli territory.
28:28The Houthis also targeted cargo ships in the Red Sea, a key route for international commerce.
28:34Iraq's pro-Iran militants struck a US military base early this year.
28:40Those are the groups Iran's leader has called to escalate their fighting with Israel.
28:45And although most of their attacks have been intercepted, Iran has provided them with a
28:50vast arsenal of missiles, which they haven't used to their full capacities.
28:58The European Commission and the EU Aviation Safety Agency has warned airlines to avoid
29:03Israeli and Lebanese airspace for a month.
29:05EU states are also urging their citizens in Lebanon to leave if they have not done so
29:10already.
29:11Our correspondent Dave Keating has the details from Brussels.
29:16The announcement came earlier today from the European Commission and the European Aviation
29:22Safety Authority, closing airspace essentially, telling European airlines that they shouldn't
29:28fly into Lebanese or Israeli airspace.
29:32That actually reportedly caused a couple of flights to have to turn around mid-flight,
29:36which were flying to the area.
29:39And that recommendation for the flights not to enter that airspace will be in effect for
29:43the next month until October 31st.
29:47Now there's been a lot of speculation as to why this happened today.
29:51There was a Reuters report that there earlier today was supposed to be a flight from Iran
29:57landing in Beirut, but that the Israeli authorities contacted Lebanese air control and said they
30:03could not allow that Iranian flight to land.
30:06And so the air traffic control told the Iranian flight they couldn't land.
30:10I think because of the implicit threat there that that commercial flight might have been
30:14shot down, that may have resulted in this announcement today telling European airlines
30:19not to enter that airspace.
30:21Because after all, these aerial bombardments have been happening for several days.
30:25Nevertheless, this announcement, the one month timeframe of this has really raised eyebrows
30:32because it kind of sends the message that the EU has now baked into its planning a major
30:37escalation here that's going to last a long time.
30:41And this is while actually today we haven't had any official reaction to the killing of
30:46Hezbollah's leader from EU leaders.
30:48And so the question is, why are we getting this advice about the safety of Europeans
30:52and maybe not a political response?
30:55We know that countries, individual European countries, have been telling their citizens
30:59to leave as soon as possible while or immediately, really, while commercial flights were still
31:03running.
31:04Now, of course, commercial flights will not be running.
31:06And so the question is, what measures individual European countries might be taking to get
31:11their citizens home?
31:13We know that Spain may be organizing something.
31:15The UK has sent some people to their bases in Cyprus just across the sea.
31:19So we'll see, because for sure, there are still some European citizens left in Lebanon.
31:24And now that the commercial flights have stopped, there may be some extra efforts by
31:29European countries to get their citizens out.
31:32You're watching our special edition here on France 24.
31:35We'll continue to bring you more after a short break.
31:37Stay tuned.