Secret of a Success

From MEMRI,

On July 16, 2008, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech on the occasion of the prisoners exchange. Excerpts published in English on the Iranian Press TV website are as follows.

In the name of God the merciful, I thank God, peace be upon our prophet Mohammad, peace also be upon his family, peace be upon all his friends and colleagues, peace be upon all prophets.

...How did we reach this result? This swap in certain stages seemed impossible or very far to achieve, a very far possibility to achieve, my brothers and sisters, the biggest factor which enabled us implement this prisoner swap which we call the 'Rodvan Operation' the biggest factor is the perseverance and the victory in the face of the July 2006 assault and the failure of the enemy in achieving any of its goals and also the repercussions of this defeat for Israel, the defeat of the Israeli leadership, people, and army.
...The perseverance and the victory made Lebanon, made the resistance and made us all stand in a solid way, stand firmly to continue the liberation of our prisoners and our martyrs...We remember the perseverance of our people, those whose homes were destroyed; those who had to leave their homes; those of course who suffered a lot; those who didn't have a place for 33 days.

"But they did not complain at all. They did not show any weakness. This perseverance, this victory is the main factor, the biggest factor which contributed in achieving this prisoner swap, this victory.

...The third point which is very important is the fear of the enemy. The fear that they would announce the failure of the negotiations or the negotiations would lead to a failure. The enemy feared that the failure of the negotiation would lead the Islamic Resistance to go perform another operation and abduct other Israeli soldiers.

"So the pressure on the enemy was not just humanitarian pressure, there was incapability on the Israeli side to save these two soldiers and the incapability to know the fate of theses soldiers. The Israelis also feared that the resistance would kidnap or abduct other Israeli soldiers.

...In addition to these, the families of the detainees and the martyrs, the honorable families who put their trust in us, who had confidence in us. These families helped and contributed so that we could go in the positive direction, to reach the best possible results.

"These are very important factors in these negotiations. We must remember that the results showed the efforts by our negotiating team and the talent and expertise of them...

...My dear brothers and sisters, the free detainees, families of the martyrs and families of the detainees all of you who are waiting for your loved ones for your loved martyrs bodies tomorrow, all who are present I like to congratulate you on this victory because this victory is your victory, it is your achievement, it is your promise, it is your doing, it is your pain, the way you used to form this contributed to this prisoners swap. [...]