During the celebration commemorating the 2000 Liberation of South Lebanon on 25 May 2012, Morteza Heydari from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) did an exclusive interview with Hizbullah Secretary Generaly Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The 90 minutes interview will be aired on Thursday June 14 at 16:50 GMT on IRIB4 that can be watched worldwide on different satellites.

In an exclusive statement to Moqawama.org, Heydari said that a wide range of subjects such as: the internal situation of Lebanon, the Taef agreement, Hizbullah relation and partnership with the government, the current activities of Hizbullah and their evolvement throughout the past three decades, the current goals, the relation between the party and Iran, the stances of Hizbullah about the Zionist entity and the United States and some personal questions were asked.

Heydari told Moqawama.org "In general Sayyed Nasrallah emphasized that the relation with Iran is fundamental and not related to political tactics or current needs. He also added that in the opposite side, the enmity towards Israel is because of its identity and won't change through time."

Fars News Agency has also published an interesting interview with Heydari about his meeting with Sayyed Nasrallah:

How did you arrange the interview?

Two months ago, it came to my mind to have an interview with Sayyed Nasrallah. May 25 - the day of Liberation and Resistance- was as a good occasion for traveling to Lebanon. I could both participate in the ceremony of the Liberation in Bint Jbeil and do the interview with Sayyed Hassan. Mr. Ghadanfar Rokn-Abaadi, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon and his colleagues helped me a lot to arrange it.

Did you go alone?

Yes

Did you take a camera?

No. They took the footages themselves.

Did the security and protection issues cause any problem to your work?

Not at all. I had so much enthusiasm about interviewing him and I enjoyed it a lot. I had thought that the protocols would be more severe. But they were very kind and everything was arranged quite easily.

It's interesting that the Zionist Regime has announced that wherever Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah goes -whether a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, a civilian airliner or a residential area, we will target him. That is a clear example of State Terrorism.

What was the first image that you got from him?

His simplicity, warmth and brilliance. I tell you this without any exaggeration, as my job requires me to avoid exaggerating in the choice of words, he was really very kind and friendly, and the environment where he is living is very very simple and hearty.

How close was it to what you had thought?

I had thought a person that has spent almost his whole life in resisting and leads a movement like Hizbullah that has achieved back to back victories and successes for 20 years, should be a special personality.

He was a special personality, but this aspect is in his kindness, affection, his brilliance and purity. That's a character of true religious leaders: they enjoy political position and power, but as their political activities are based on their religious beliefs, they have extraordinary human qualities and you can't see any vanity, insolence, arrogance etc... that you see in non-religious political leaders. It was over my expectations.

He had a deep understanding on the issues. They hadn't asked me about the questions and there were no limits. Even when my questions were a bit harsh, he kindly and easily answered them with self-confidence.

One of the characteristics about him that we have heard a lot is that he is very clever. How did you see that?

Sure he is very clever. Especially in the last part of the interview -that I recommend everyone to watch - I told words (including personalities, political terms, geographical places ...) in a row and asked him to give a sentence about each of them. Listening to this part shows that how intelligent, clever and tact Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is. Only few persons that after hearing a word, can immediately define it in a sentence and do the same about all of them, but Sayyed handle them very well.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is fluent in Farsi, why didn't you interview him in Farsi?

He completely understands Farsi. When I asked him to speak in Farsi, he told me that he doesn't mind doing it but as the topics in the interview may be complicated concepts, he may not be able to express his opinion fully, so he prefers to speak in Arabic. He said that it's obvious that when someone wants to state his feelings and opinions in another language, because he isn't enough fluent, some of the answers will be incomplete.

Did you have a private conversation with him too?

I had before and after the interview. One of the interesting points was that many of my friends in Iran who knew I'm going for an interview, and understood that I'm longing for it, called me and asked me to deliver their regards and devotion to him.

The spiritual influence of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in the Iranian society is amazing.

What was interesting for you in the private conversation?

He felt a strong concern about the situation of the 11 Lebanese abducted in Syria. Some people may be politically concerned because they may be under question by media. But that is not the case about Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah at all. It is a very deep and pure humanitarian concern about abducted people.

If you were to repeat the interview, what would you have done?

I would have prepared even better. Now I know more about Nasrallah, Hizbullah and Lebanon. So I can ask better questions and the interview would be completely different.

It was also amazing for me to see during the week I stayed in Beirut that different segments of people love him a lot.

Even in largely Sunni or Christian areas, we could see his pictures. Talking to people in different places, I understood that they all love Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. The different interviews that he made had a great effect on this.

For example, one of my questions was that: "What symbol do you want Hizbullah to represent: Lebanese Shiites, World Shiites, Muslim Liberty seekers, Arabs?" He gave a very good response and I think that Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is a trans-national and trans-regional personality.

The personal question didn't make discomfort?

No he answered them very intimately. I hope that you'll watch it.

Do you have any special memory from this interview?

During the interview, I insisted a lot to know about how he feels about his martyred son (Hadi). It was interesting for me that he had a very realistic approach to it. First of all he said that he is a father and it is completely normal to have "a fatherly feeling towards my son. But that's only the personal aspect of it. Mohammad Hadi is a martyr like all the other martyrs of Lebanon and Hizbullah and there is no difference about it to me."

Source:Interview with Heydari conducted by Tehran correspondent Sayed Hadi Mousavi, exclusive interview from Persian IRIB website translated into English.