Hezbollah chief made a televised speech on "Freedom Day"

Chief of Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah Hasan Nasrallah made a televised speech on the occasion of "Freedom Day" on Thursday, the al-Manar TV reported.

During his speech on "Freedom Day," a day celebrated by Hezbollah to mark the freedom of their hostages from Israeli jails, Nasrallah denounced the Egyptian regime for continuing to close the Rafah crossing with Gaza, "the closure of Rafah crossing is a historical crime."

He expressed doubts over the Egyptian role of mediating between the Palestinians and the Israelis, saying "I doubt that the (Egyptian) regime is an honest mediator because it works on imposing the conditions of others on the Palestinians."

Nasrallah also denounced "the rude" statements made by some European officials against the Palestinians in Gaza, and stressed that "the previous and decisive stand of the United States and Europe is represented by their full support to Israel, and all its crimes."

He vowed that revenging the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah military commander who was killed in a Damascus car bombing in February last year, "was never behind us," adding that the response would be "to punish those who killed him and safeguard the others."

Hezbollah had accused the Israeli intelligence service of carrying out the assassination.

"The investigations proved that the Israeli Mossad is responsible for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh," Nasrallah reaffirmed.

He said that any war with Israel will be "costly" to the Israeli capabilities.

"We remain a resistance ready to defend Lebanon, we will not leave the circle of conflict with Israeli, and shall stand to the enemy," Nasrallah pledged.

"Israel failed politically and militarily in Gaza as in Lebanon," he said, adding that "those who did not recognize the victory in Lebanon will not recognize it in Gaza for the same reasons."

Nasrallah called on the Lebanese government to reveal the fate of the four Iranian diplomats who were kidnapped in Lebanon in 1982 by the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) militia during the civil war. Israel claimed that they were killed by the LF, while Hezbollah believes they were handed over to Israel.

Hezbollah fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in summer 2006, and had pledged to keep its arms as long as Israel posses a threat in the region.