Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a Tuesday televised speech that Syria's friends in the region and the world would not allow the country to fall "into the hands of Americans, Israel and extremists."
“Syria has friends that will not allow it to fall into the hands of the United States, Israel, or takfiri groups. How will they do this? I will explain this later,” he said.
“I say this based on information rather than wishful thinking,” Nasrallah stated.
"The battle is long ... We tell you (Syrian rebels) that you will not be able to bring this government down through military means," he said.
He also said that the Lebanese state cannot fulfill its duty of defending Lebanese citizens living in towns on the Syrian border.
“We surely will not let the Lebanese in rural al-Quseir be subjected to attacks from armed groups, and if someone wants help to stay in their village, then we will not hesitate to offer this help,” Nasrallah noted.
Defending the Lebanese people in the al-Quseir region did not require authorization from any side, he added.
Nasrallah added that the goal of the plot to foment a crisis in Syria is to reduce the country to a series of statelets without a strong central government.
“The objective behind what is happening in Syria is not only to remove Syria from the axis of resistance. One can confidently say that the objective of all those behind the unrest in Syria is to destroy the Syrian state, people, society, and army in order to turn Syria into a failed state that cannot make decisions concerning its oil, gas, and assets,” Nasrallah said.
The leader of the Lebanese resistance movement added that certain Arab and Western states are seeking to destroy Syria in order to take control of its resources and weaken its role in the region and the international arena.
“These countries have said that Syria is playing a much bigger role than it should. So they want Syria to become fragile, destroyed, and hungry,” Nasrallah stated.
The Hezbollah secretary general also censured the fatwas issued by a number of clerics concerning attacks on Syrian government workers and soldiers, arguing that such calls would only increase the bloodshed in Syria and complicate the situation on the ground.
He went on to say that there are two different approaches to the Syrian crisis: one pushing for the ouster of the government and the other insisting on dialogue and a political solution to the conflict.
Nasrallah stated that the Syrian opposition is not brave enough to enter into talks with the Syrian government because they are afraid of the potential reaction of the countries fomenting unrest in Syria.
The fact that the conflict in Syria has dragged on for two years shows that the government in Damascus cannot be defeated by military means, he opined.
Nasrallah also denied the Zionist regime's claim that his organization was behind the downed drone that penetrated Israeli airspace last week.
"The Israelis claimed a few days ago that they downed a drone near Haifa, and said Hezbollah was responsible for its launch, but we didn't launch a drone of this type," he said.
Nasrallah further said during Tuesday's speech that "due to the sensitive nature of the region, we were quick to publish an exact and specific statement."
He dubbed the claims against his organization as "an honor we would never dream of," adding that "Israel never presented a video of the interception itself, and as far as I know, it remains unclear whether they found any remnants of the aircraft."
The Hezbollah secretary-general further said that "everybody knows that Hezbollah has the courage to take responsibility for every action it undertakes to hurt Israel. The accusations don’t concern us.
"Whatever is said regarding this drone is unimportant, what really matters is that Hezbollah took responsibility for the 'enemy' drone that reached the Dimona reactor."
He also posited a number of alternative theories regarding the drone's origin, one of which suggested that an unknown force launched the drone from Lebanon in an attempt to drag Israel and Hezbollah into conflict.
According to another of Nasrallah theories, it was Israel that put the drone on Lebanese soil only to launch it back to Israel as part of its political and psychological warfare.
Nasrallah delivered a warning to Israel, saying "If somebody in the region or in Lebanon is mistakenly disillusioned that the Lebanese resistance is somehow in a state of weakness or embarrassment because of what is happening in Syria, Iraq or anywhere in the region – then they are very much mistaken.”
"I warn the Israeli enemy and those standing behind it not to make a foolish mistake in Lebanon, because despite all that has been said, the resistance is alert and is willing and able to protect Lebanon."