Hezbollah chief Nasrallah rumored to have suffered stroke

(A7) Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s recent cancellation of a planned public address is continuing to fuel rumors that the 62-year-old terrorist leader is gravely ill.

Nasrallah had been scheduled to make a televised speech Friday evening, but postponed the address, with Hezbollah’s media relations department “health reasons.”

The Lebanese terror group claimed that Nasrallah was suffering from an influenza infection, which would “prevent him from speaking in a regular and normal manner.”

The group also said its leader is “receiving the appropriate treatment” and will speak on Tuesday evening at a Hezbollah rally commemorating slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and slain Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Since then, however, reports from Lebanon and Saudi Arabia have claimed that Nasrallah in fact suffered a stroke last week and has been incapacitated.

“Nasrallah’s illness, which led him to be admitted to the hospital, is not the ‘flu’, as has been claimed, but rather is a second stroke,” Saudi journalist Hussein al-Gawi wrote.

In 2019, Lebanese media outlets claimed Nasrallah suffered a stroke, though other reports suggested he had suffered a heart attack. Iran and Hezbollah denied the claims.

“Arab sources report that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah is hospitalized in critical condition after suffering a stroke, with one source going so far as to say Nasrallah has died and that the news of his death is being kept secret for the time being. There are no confirmations yet as to Nasrallah’s current status,” said former Israeli intelligence official and regional analyst Avi Melamed.

Nasrallah “was supposed to give a speech on December 30, 2022, which was canceled due to what Hezbollah’s Department of Media Relations him having come down with the flu. His next scheduled appearance is Tuesday, January 3, 2023, for a speech marking the anniversary of the killing of the commander of the Iranian Al-Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was killed in Iraq by the United States on January 3, 2020.”

“If Nasrallah either cancels or doesn’t show for the speech on Tuesday, it could indicate a wider issue with his health.”

“While right now rumors are the only potential indicators of Nasrallah’s present condition, their reverberation throughout the Arab world clearly indicate the distaste that many Arabs have for Nasrallah. Those detractors, great in number are certainly hoping that Hassan Nasrallah is indeed dead.”