Hassan Nasrallah broke his long, long silence on Syria on May 25 and with it probably his reputation throughout the entire Middle East by backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brutal repression of his people. In a 2008 Zogby poll Nasrallah was voted the most popular leader in the Arab world, a significant achievement for a Shia leader in a Sunni-dominated region. After his recent comments in support of Assad, however, i doubt he will retain this position for much longer.
I think it's fair to say that Ranna Kabbani's post on the al-Bab blog just about sums up the feelings of betrayal felt by the Syrian people as they witness one of their former heroes and self-styled champion of the oppressed side against them in their time of need. Describing Nasrallah's speech, Kabbani states:
"As ever, it took on the mythic pageantry of a Passion Play. Nasrallah began by urging his many listeners to suffer the few hours of their wait in the burning sun to hear him, as a way of sharing the burning experience of all those who suffered and sacrificed so greatly to bring this occasion about.
"He then broke his long, long silence on the popular intifada in Syria, only to side totally and categorically with the killers in the Syrian regime. As a Syrian watching this, who knows what great popularity Nasrallah once enjoyed in her country, where photos of him were on display everywhere – making his the only face ever allowed to be added to the Assad iconography of Father, Son and Holy Ghost – or Hafiz, Bashar and the departed Basil – so depravedly and cynically modelled on Christian religious belief. I felt viscerally that something had shifted irrevocably as the chairman uttered his unfortunate words. No wonder that his image was torched almost at once after this speech in Deraa and Muaddamiyya and Homs and Hama and Bou Kamal and other centres of our intifada."
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