Nasrallah: U.S. will remain the ‘Great Satan’

The Lebanese Hezbollah group said Washington will remain the “Great Satan” following nuclear deal with world powers and it can still count on Iran’s support, its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday.

In his first public remarks since the agreement was reached this month in Geneva, Nasrallah said he was sure Tehran would confound critics who say it would end support to Hezbollah.

“Did Iran sell its allies down the river during the nuclear talks? No, there was no bargaining” between Iran and the United States, he said in a speech broadcast on a large screen to supporters in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a party stronghold.

Supreme leader “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated Iran’s position on the resistance movements and its allies, and Hezbollah occupies a special place among them,” Nasrallah added.

“The United States remains the ‘Great Satan,’ both before and after the nuclear accord” reached last week after tough negotiations between Iran and permanent U.N. Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany.

On July 18, Khamenei warned that, despite the deal, Iran would continue its policy towards the “arrogant” United States and also its support for its friends in the region.

Founded in the 1980s by Iran’s Guardians of the Revolution and financed and armed by Tehran, Hezbollah has become a powerful armed party advocating armed struggle against Israel.

In an interview with Al Arabiya News Channel, Ben Rhodes, the U.S. deputy national security advisor said Iran’s “additional revenue” from the sanctions relief will be mainly used by Tehran to uplift the Islamic republic’s ailing economy.

However, Rhodes said the additional money could possibly be used to funnel the activities of its allies in the region.

Hezbollah is the Lebanese Shiite group that is also currently backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

U.S. President Barack Obama himself admitted after the nuclear agreement was signed on July 14 that “even with this deal, we will continue to have profound differences with Iran” with respect to “its support of terrorism and its use of proxies to destabilize parts of the Middle East.”

The Iran nuclear deal sees Tehran curbing its nuclear program – an allegation it has long rejected – in return for the lifting of the sanctions slapped on by the U.S., U.N. and EU.

The deal also sees the almost immediate lifting of more than $100 billion in sanctions.

(With Reuters and AFP)