Nasrallah to Deliver Speech Friday

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to make a TV appearance on Friday marking “Martyr's Day” where he will “stress the need for self-restraint and a solution for the crisis” in the wake of Prime Minister Saad Hariri's resignation, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

A senior Hizbullah source told the daily regarding speculations on Hariri's return to Lebanon from Saudi Arabia from where he announced his resignation, he said: “We hope, we do not expect.”

On Saturday, Hariri unexpectedly announced his resignation from Saudi Arabia and in a televised speech accused Iran of meddling in Arab affairs and the Iran-backed Hizbullah group of holding Lebanon hostage.

The daily added that Nasrallah's speech "will be divided into several themes: a religious one on the occasion of the 40th commemoration of Imam Hussein, and another that will touch on the possibilities of an Israeli war against Lebanon and the Resistance's ability to deter it,” said the daily.

He will also focus on the “regional developments and the military operation in Syria's Albu Kamal and the implications of that declaring victory over the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq after linking the Iraqi-Syrian border. He will also highlight the Yemeni crisis,” added the daily.

Syrian state news agency SANA had reported that “Syrian troops and allied forces on Wednesday encircled the Islamic State group in Albu Kamal, the jihadists' last urban stronghold in the country, and have begun operations to eradicate them from the town."

Hariri's resignation was seen as a reflection of growing tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran, its archrival in the region.

After Hariri's resignation, rumors spread in Lebanon that he was under house arrest in Saudi Arabia — especially after news broke over the weekend of arrests in the kingdom of dozens of Saudi princes, ministers and influential businessmen in a sweep purportedly over corruption.