Hezbollah insists on resistance

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Amid chants of "Death to Israel, death to America," the Lebanese Hezbollah guerilla group Saturday vowed to foil "Zionist attempts to isolate the resistance."

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah told hundreds of thousands of people in Beirut, "Resistance is the choice of our nation and the enemy cannot disparage us."

Marking Ashura, the Shiites' holiest day of the year, Nasrallah said during a rally. "Those who try to put us on the terrorism lists will fail again, for our being on the terrorism lists will make us more determined in continuing our path."

He insisted Israel was the enemy, describing it as an "illegal, illegitimate entity with no future for it on our territories."

Hundreds of thousands of people repeated after him, "Death to Israel, death to America" after he said that both Israel and the United States were the "enemy."

The Hezbollah leader said the U.S. administration was "an enemy to this nation because it supports Israel with money and weapons, because it wants to humiliate our people."

He described the American government as the "biggest thief of our oil and resources, while hundreds of millions (in the region) remain unemployed."