US-Led NATO Mission in Afghanistan ‘Failed Miserably’, Says Nasrallah

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah was reported by Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network as making the remark on Tuesday, in commemoration of the ninth eve of Muharram mourning ceremony.

Nasrallah said “the scenes of Kabul are completely identical to the scenes of Saigon in Vietnam,” and that “the United States is still ignorant and incomprehensible in the region, and it is repeating the same mistakes.”

The Hezbollah chief stressed that US President Joe Biden withdrew his forces from Afghanistan “because he could no longer afford” the consequences of staying there.

“Biden said that he spent more than a trillion dollars and here are the Americans who came out as humiliated, losers and defeated,” he said, adding, “Biden wanted a civil war in Afghanistan through a fight between the Taliban and Afghan forces.”

Nasrallah said the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan “failed miserably,” and that the US humiliating withdrawal from the country showed that Washington would not “fight on behalf of its allies.”

“The Americans took out the equipment, even the sniffer dogs, from Afghanistan, and they did not take out those who dealt with them,” he added. “Biden said that it is not the Americans’ duty to fight for anyone. This is a message to those who are waiting for him to fight on their behalf.”

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan on the pretext of the so-called war on terror removed the Taliban from power 20 years ago, but it worsened the security situation in the country.

The Taliban militant group recently intensified offensives and rapidly overran major cities after Biden ordered a hasty withdrawal of American forces by September 1.

The militants laid siege to Kabul on Sunday, forcing the sitting Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, to flee the country. Ghani, whose current whereabouts are unknown, left Afghanistan when the Taliban entered Kabul virtually unopposed.

The unfolding events led to chaos and confusion, with thousands of Afghan civilians and diplomats swarming the Kabul airport to take evacuation flights.

In his speech on Tuesday, Nasrallah said the economic crisis in his country following the US sanctions was “part of a state of economic war aimed at humiliating the Lebanese people,” and underlined that “the United States wants Lebanon to be submissive and servile.”

The Hezbollah chief added that “Lebanon is part of the front or the resistance axis that has defeated the American project more than once.”

“The goal of this economic war is to pressure the Lebanese people in order to push them to collapse,” Nasrallah said. “The realization that what is happening is not only the result of internal problems, but also the result of an external war, makes our capacity for patience greater.”

Lebanon has been mired since late 2019 in a deep financial crisis that caused the Lebanese pound losing around 90 percent of its value to the dollar.

Lebanese people have held protests demanding the departure of the ruling elite and an end to chronic economic mismanagement and corruption.

In addition to political and financial woes gripping Lebanon, hundreds of individuals and entities have been sanctioned by the US, with the list focusing mainly on those with ties to the Hezbollah resistance movement.

The US and its European allies have long been seeking to mount pressure on the Lebanese authorities through sanctions in a bid to force the formation of a Western-friendly administration.