Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah called for a " massive popular gathering " on Tuesday against UN Resolution 1559 saying " The resistance will not give up its arms ... because Lebanon needs the resistance to defend it ", and added " all the articles of UN resolution give free services to the Israeli enemy who should have been made accountable for his crimes and now finds that he is being rewarded for his crimes and achieves all its demands ".

* Nasrallah Sfeir, Patriarch Emeritus of Antioch for the Maronites

" In June 2002, shortly after the Israeli government launched Operation Defensive Shield, Nasrallah gave a speech in which he defended and praised suicide bombings of Israeli targets by members of Palestinian groups for " creating a deterrence and equalizing fear.

" Nasrallah stated that " in occupied Palestine, there is no difference between a soldier and a civilian, for they are all invaders, occupiers and usurpers of the land.

Including these is the Maronite Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir – the most eminent religious figure for Maronites – and the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

In his speech Nasrallah blasted UN Security-Council Resolution 1559, which calls for Hezbollah's militia to be disbanded, as foreign intervention.

Nasrallah also reiterated his earlier calls for the destruction of Israel saying " To this enemy we say again: There is no place for you here and there is no life for you among us.

" Nasrallah went on to praise Garaudy for exposing " alleged Jewish Holocaust in Germany " and stated that Garaudy " proved that this Holocaust is a myth.

" Nasrallah also criticized France for putting Garaudy on trial.

Nasrallah believes that Islam holds the solution to the problems of any society, once saying, “ With respect to us, briefly, Islam is not a simple religion including only prayers and praises, rather it is a divine message that was designed for humanity, and it can answer any question man might ask concerning his general and personal life.

Consequently, Nasrallah is widely credited in Lebanon and the Arab world for ending the Israeli occupation of the South of Lebanon, something which has greatly bolstered the party's political standing within Lebanon.

The agreement was described across the Arab world as a magnificent victory for Hezbollah, and Nasrallah was personally praised for achieving these gains.

On August 3, 2006, Hasan Nasrallah vowed to strike Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israel's bombardment of Lebanon's capital.

* In a 2011 televized speech, Nasrallah voiced support for the popular uprisings which took place in countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Bahrain ; he was more outspoken towards the Bahraini issue, expressing strong support for the popular movements, a feat which fueled tensions between Lebanon and Bahrain.

* Lebanese writer, Amal Saad-Ghorayeb quotes Hasan Nasrallah as saying, " If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew.

* According to the US-Israeli organisation MEMRI, in a speech aired on Al-Manar and Al-Jazeera in 2006, Nasrallah expressed support for alleged Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy calling him a " great French philosopher " who " proved ( sic ) that this Holocaust is a myth ".

* On February 24, 2012, in a speech in Nabi Sheet for the " remembrance of the fallen martyrs Abbas al-Musawi, Ragheb Harb, and Imad Mughniyah ," Hasan Nasrallah said, " I say that the American administration and the American mentality lacks nothing from Satanism.

According to Almalaf officials considered flying Nasrallah to Iran for further treatment.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the government's decision to declare the group's military telecommunications network illegal was a " declaration of war " on the organization, and demanded that the government revoke it.

Rachel Corrie was a US citizen allegedly killed by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF ) while involved in direct action ( based on the non-violent principles of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi ) to prevent demolition of the home of local Palestinian pharmacist Samir Nasrallah.

Hasan Nasrallah was born the ninth of ten children in Bourj Hammoud, Matn District ( an eastern suburb of Beirut ) on August 31, 1960.

In a TV interview aired on Lebanon's New TV station, Sunday, 27 August 2006, Nasrallah said that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war: " We do not think, even one percent, that the capture led to a war at this time and of this magnitude.

* Despite declaring " death to Israel " in his public appearances, Nasrallah said in an interview to The New Yorker, " At the end of the road no one can go to war on behalf of the Palestinians, even if that one is not in agreement with what the Palestinians agreed on.

* In a television interview with Julian Assange on 17 April 2012, Nasrallah said that Israel “ is and will be an illegal state … It was established on the basis of occupying the lands of others .” He added, “ If I occupy your house by force it doesn't become mine in 50 or 100 years .” While “ Hezbollah does not want to kill anyone ”, the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he argued, was to establish a democratic state on Palestinian land where Muslims, Jews and Christians live in peace but that the US “ won't let people listen to Hezbollah .”

In a television interview aired on 17 April 2012 Nasrallah stated that Hezbollah supports Syrian president Bashar al-Assad since Syria had supported resistance in Lebanon and " hasn't backed down in the face of Israeli and American pressure ".

Nasrallah urged dialogue as the solution: " There is fighting in Syria – when one party retreats, the other will advance, it will go on as long as doors to dialogue are shut ".

** Nasrallah said in a speech delivered in Beirut and aired on Al-Manar TV on September 28, 2001: " What do the Jews want?

* According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Robert Satloff, in a speech carried during Ashura on April 9, 2000, Hasan Nasrallah said that: " The Jews invented the legend of the Nazi atrocities.

* During the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah declared in a speech aired on Al-Manar TV and Al-Jazeera TV that: " If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwā against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so.

Almalaf, an Iraqi news source on 15, October 2008, quoted sources in Lebanon saying Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah had been poisoned the previous week and that he was saved by Iranian doctors who went to Lebanon to treat him.

* Profile: Hassan Nasrallah by Council on Foreign Relations

The New York Times, the London Times, and the Independent also reported on the apparent attempt against Nasrallah, and the Israeli military censor complained the reporters from all newspapers involved had violated censorship laws.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared on 16 October 2000 on al-Manar TV station: " We have an Israeli colonel in our hands ".

Nasrallah has praised the stated reform process in Syria and said that the country faces attempts at destabilization by outside powers such as the United States and from armed groups threatening the Syrian people and government.

The issue came to head over the MCC's position on the arrest of 17 Muslims in the 2006 Toronto terrorism case and objections by some MCC leaders to the MCC's participation in anti-war demonstrations during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War where flags of Hezbollah and Hamas were raised along with posters of Iranian leader Ahmedinejad and Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.

Nasrallah replaced Musawi as Hezbollah's leader after the latter was killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Nasrallah said that Assad's regime had also " served the Palestinian cause very well ".

Nasrallah also played a major role in a complex prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah in 2004, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners being freed and many bodies, including that of his son, being returned to Lebanon.

" If you hit Beirut, the Islamic resistance will hit Tel Aviv and is able to do that with God's help ," Nasrallah said in a televised address.

Following the Nasrallah and Hezbollah great victory, came what is known as the " Green Flood " ( Al-sayl al-akhdhar ), according to Iranian-born journalist Amir Taheri.

* In 2006 Nasrallah said " There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel ".

* On November 30, 2009, while reading the party's new political manifesto, Hasan Nasrallah declared " Our problem with Israelis is not that they are Jews, but that they are occupiers who are raping our land and holy places.

Nasrallah said that without it, " civil war is the only alternative ".

is: Hassan Nasrallah

Patriarch Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir (, ; born May 15, 1920 ) is the patriarch emeritus of Lebanon's largest Christian body, the Maronite Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See.

The current Patriarch ( since March 2011 ) is Bechara Boutros Rahi, while Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir is Patriarch Emeritus.