Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah appears on Julian Assange talk show

July 31, 2016

By Tim Fitzsimons

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah today appeared on the first broadcast of The World Tomorrow, a talk show hosted by Wikileaks founder and editor Julian Assange on the Kremlin-backed television station Russia Today (RT), the Associated Press wrote. The station described Assange's show as "one of the most anticipated news programs of 2012."

Nasrallah, who scarcely appears in public due to security concerns, was interviewed via videolink from an undisclosed location in Lebanon. Assange is in England where he is currently embroiled in a legal battle over extradition to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault.

However, dates mentioned in the interview suggest it was conducted months ago, before new developments in Syria threatened to isolate Hezbollah. In early April, The New York Times reported on readjustments of Hezbollah's messaging. In today's broadcast, Assange asked about Tunisia's withdrawal of diplomatic recognition of Syria, which occurred in early February, and refers to the recent passing of Marie Colvin, who was killed during the siege of Homs on February 22.

More from GlobalPost: Stuck in the middle with Druze

Nasrallah answered questions on a variety of subjects, including Hezbollah's opposition to the state of Israel, which he called for replacing with a single state "in which the Muslims and the Jews and the Christians live in peace in a democratic state." Nasrallah said "any other solution will simply not be viable."

Assange asked about a perceived increase in corruption since Hezbollah assumed the reins of power in the Lebanese government. Nasrallah said the flashy lifestyles of people claiming to be close to his Hezbollah were actually wealthy people overstating their proximity to his party.

The Wikileaks head also pressed about Hezbollah's support for the government of Bashar al-Assad despite supporting popular uprisings in other Arab countries. Nasrallah said Assad has "supported the Palestinian cause very well," and warned against Syria's descent into civil war, which he said is "exactly what America and Israel want for Syria."

Nasrallah said his group is a "friend of Syria, not an agent of Syria" that is "more than happy to mediate" between groups who wish for meaningful dialogue, though he repeatedly expressed doubt that the Syrian opposition was interested in anything short of the removal of the Assad regime.

“Right from the beginning we have had a regime that is willing to undergo reforms and prepared for dialogue. On the other side you have an opposition which is not prepared for dialogue and it is not prepared to accept reforms. All it wants is to bring down the regime. This is a problem," Nasrallah told Assange, according to RT.

Assange finished with a provocative question: "You have fought against a hegemony of the United States. Isn't Allah, or the notion of a God, the ultimate superpower, and shouldn't you as a freedom fighter also seek to liberate people from the totalitarian concept of a monotheistic god?"

Nasrallah said, "Even if in a household or in a country, if there are two leaders that's a recipe for ruin. So how could the universe last for billions of years in such beautiful harmony and have more than one god? If there was more than one god it would have been torn to pieces. So we do have the evidence."

A video of the show is below.