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00:00There has been no confirmation and no statement by Hezbollah whatsoever or by any Lebanese
00:05government official.
00:08There is complete silence on the side of Lebanon and Hezbollah in terms of what has been going
00:14on over the past 18 hours.
00:17In particular, there is something very important, which is the fact that yesterday evening we
00:23saw Israel carpet bombing an entire neighborhood, six buildings turned into rubble in a matter
00:29of seconds before they deployed a bunker buster bomb deep into the ground, supposedly where
00:35Nasrallah and other senior military commanders from Hezbollah were meeting.
00:40Shortly after that, a few hours later, we saw evacuation calls by the Israeli army for
00:45the residents of Beirut's southern suburbs to evacuate their neighborhoods.
00:49Shortly after that, we also saw Israel bombing intensively a number of buildings in the southern
00:57suburbs of Beirut without even evacuation calls for those buildings, unlike the buildings
01:03which we saw earlier.
01:04However, things have in general calmed down in the past two hours, at least when it comes
01:10to the intensity of the bombing on Beirut's southern suburbs.
01:15There is a lot of anticipation of what could be happening next, a lot of talk about potential
01:23diplomatic efforts to head towards de-escalation, a lot of uncertainty, many questions to be
01:29answered.
01:30Who will be leading the organization after Nasrallah if he was confirmed dead by Hezbollah
01:35within the next few hours?
01:37Will the organization continue its war against Israel given such a destabilized status quo
01:44following the assassination of the entire elite force of the Ridwan unit, following
01:51the potential assassination of Secretary General Nasrallah and other commanders?
01:57What is the fate of the organization internally within the Lebanese status quo?
02:03There's just a lot of uncertainty and absolutely no statements whatsoever by Hezbollah or by
02:08any Lebanese governmental official.
02:10Now, we know for a fact that caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called for a special
02:15session for the cabinet later this evening at 7.30 p.m. local time in Beirut.
02:21After landing from New York where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly, the general
02:27tone of the Lebanese government is heading towards de-escalation, calling for the implementation
02:32of the UN Resolutions 1701, which in itself calls for demilitarization of the southern
02:41part of Lebanon, in particular south of Litani.
02:45We also know for a fact that it seems there is some sort of diplomatic work that's being
02:49done in the background by the Qataris and Egyptians with a proposal that would be directed
02:56towards the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Speaker of Parliament, Nabi
03:00Berri, in order to de-escalate the situation and not lead into an all-out long war.
03:06Rawad, the word of the day, obviously, uncertainty until we get confirmations about Hassan Nasrallah's
03:12status.
03:13But give us some context about his role in Hezbollah and how much of a bloat would be
03:18if he were confirmed dead.
03:21So this is the man that has been leading the organization for the past 32 years, so at
03:26least three decades leading the organization.
03:28He's witnessed the organization's growth from a small guerrilla of fighters trained in the
03:34Bekaa Valley to one of the largest militias of the world.
03:39This is the man who fought the 1996 war.
03:43This is the man who witnessed the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in
03:48the year 2000 and declared victory.
03:51This is the man who also declared, according to his own perspective, victory in the July
03:56War of 2006.
03:58This is the man who sent his troops to Syria in 2011, 2012, and 2013 to defend the regime
04:05of Bashar al-Assad.
04:08This is when it comes to fighting Israel and the local geopolitical scene.
04:12This is the man who led the organization in multiple instances of local fighting, most
04:19notably in the year of 2008 when the government of Lebanon back then was aiming to deconstruct
04:28or remove Hezbollah's telecommunication network.
04:32Back then Hezbollah as an organization invaded the capital within hours and took control
04:38of the city for a number of days before mediation efforts resulted in the Doha agreement and
04:43the election of a new president and the formation of a new government in Lebanon.
04:47So this is the man who's been behind it all for the past 32 years.
04:52Definitely if true, it's a very big moral blow to the supporters of the organization.
04:57It will change the internal landscape, of course, of Lebanon.
05:01And again, the main questions that need to be answered today, what is the future of Hezbollah
05:05in this current conflict without Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, if he was confirmed
05:10by Hezbollah and by Lebanese officials to be officially assassinated in yesterday's
05:15carpet bombing of Dahir?
05:17Aruwad, real quickly, as news of this alleged killing of Nasrallah ripples throughout the
05:24capital, what's the reaction been from the people of Beirut?
05:28Uncertainty.
05:29Uncertainty is the word.
05:31There's not a lot of comments.
05:33Everyone is anticipating to see whether there would be an official announcement by Hezbollah
05:39or by affiliated news agencies within the next hours.
05:43Others are uncertain and are not commenting, and even those who generally oppose Hezbollah
05:49or who sit on the opposition currently in Lebanon, we've seen no statements from them
05:54whatsoever.
05:55Uncertainty is the word that describes the scene today.