While the Australian government encourages us to view the late leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as a terrorist, very many Australians who abhor terrorism would have the highest regard for him. Why? This interview may provide some answers.

Note, Julian Assange interviewed Hassan Nasrallah in 2012 when the war in Syria dominated the news. For his 12-part show ‘The World Tomorrow’, Assange also interviewed Moazzam Begg – a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who walked free from Belmarsh Prison after terrorism-related charges against him were dropped. The charges against Begg related to time he spent in Syria supporting the insurgency there.

INTERVIEW (abridged)

Julian Assange:

Today, we’re on a quest for revolutionary ideas that can change the world tomorrow.

I am joined by a guest from a secret location in Lebanon. He is one of the most extraordinary figures of the Middle East and has fought many armed battles with Israel and is now caught in the international struggle over Syria.

I want to know why he is called a freedom fighter by millions and at the same time a terrorist by millions of others.

This is his first interview in the West since the 2006 Israel Lebanon war.

His party, Hezbollah, is a member of the Lebanese parliament. He is its leader: Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Are you ready?

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah:

I’m ready.

What is your vision for the future of Israel and Palestine? What would Hezbollah consider a victory? If you had that victory, would you disarm?

The state of Israel is an illegal state. It is a state that was established on the basis of occupying the lands of others, of usurping the lands of others, of controlling by force the lands of others, of committing massacres against the Palestinians who were expelled – and these include Muslims and Christians, too.

So for this reason justice remains on the side, where even if ten years passes, the progress of time does not negate justice. If I go and occupy your house by force, it doesn’t become mine in 50 or 100 years just because I’m stronger than you and I’ve been able to occupy your house. That doesn’t legalise my ownership of your house. At least this is our ideological view and our legal view. And we believe that Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people.

But if we wanted to combine ideology and law and political realities on the ground, we should say that the only solution is that we don’t want to kill anyone and we don’t want to treat anyone unjustly. We want justice to be restored. And the only solution is the establishment of one state on the land of Palestine in which the Muslims, and the Jews and the Christians live in peace in a democratic state. Any other solution will simply not be viable and it will not be sustained.

Israel says that Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel at civilian areas. Is that true?

Throughout the past years, even since 1948 when the state of Israel was created on the land of Palestine, Israeli forces have been shelling Lebanese civilians in Lebanese towns and Lebanese villages. In the resistance years, that’s between 1982 until 1992, after ten years of resistance we started reacting, but purely and only and strictly to stop Israel shelling our civilians. So in 1993, there was an understanding. It was indirect between the resistance and Israel, and that understanding was reaffirmed in 1996. And that understanding makes clear that both sides avoid shelling civilians. And we always used to say, ‘If you don’t shell our villages and towns, then we have nothing to do with your villages and your towns’.

So Hezbollah resorted to this method after long years of aggression against Lebanese civilians. And its aim is purely to make a kind of deterrent balance to prevent Israel from killing Lebanese civilians.

Why have you supported the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, and other countries, but not in Syria?

For clear reasons. In principle, we don’t want to interfere in the affairs of Arab states. This has........

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