Hezbollah leader optimistic about Jerusalem

Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Movement Seyed Hassan Nasrallah voiced optimism about the liberation of the Holy Quds specially after the recent developments in the regional and Muslim states. "The regional developments are happening in a way that makes us feel that the liberation of Quds is close to us more than ever," Nasrallah said Sunday, addressing a forum titled "Declaration of Al-Quds as the capital of Palestine, the Arabs and Muslims" in Beirut. Quds is a unique issue in different aspects and it is a holy city for Muslims and Christians all over the world, Nasrallah added. Referring to the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) in which Zionists divided the region in order to gain control over the Holy Quds, Nasrallah said, "The latest example of such plans was The Great Middle-East Plan but resistant movements foiled it." Palestinians see the Holy Quds as the capital of their promised state and oppose any attempt to extend Israel's control over the part of the city that was captured in the 1967 Six Day War. The conference came as Israel has intensified its Judaization scenario in the holy city. On November 1, Israel's inner cabinet decided to speed up construction of homes for Jews in Arab East Quds (Jerusalem) and in other nearby settlements to punish the Palestinians for winning membership in the UN cultural agency, UNESCO. Since then, Israel has issued announcements for the construction of 2,057 new homes in Arab East Quds and 1,241 in the West Bank, official figures show. At least 200,000 Israelis live in a dozen settlement neighborhoods in East Quds (Jerusalem), which was captured by Israel in 1967 and annexed in an aggressive move never recognized internationally.