BEIRUT, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Lebanonese Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah on Thursday declared Lebanon's eastern border with Syria safe, saying that the party's forces deployed along the border have withdrawn.
Nasrallah made the announcement in a televised speech to mark the death of Mustafa Badreddine, a top Hezbollah military commander, who died in Syria last year.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah has "dismantled and will continue to dismantle the remaining military positions along the border between Lebanon and Syria. There's no need for us to remain deployed."
"This battle has no horizon, the mission is accomplished." Nasrallah said.
Hezbollah, an ally of Tehran and Damascus, has been fighting
for years in Syria's conflict against rebels.
Nasrallah also expressed readiness to contact Syrian authorities to begin returning refugees to their hometowns.
Meanwhile, the leader of Hezbollah called on Lebanese authorities to assume their responsibilities.
"We don't replace the Lebanese state or the Lebanese Army," he said, "Matters along Lebanon's Eastern Mountain Range are left from now on to the Lebanese government."
Turning to the southern border with Israel, Nasrallah said that the Jewish state's swift work along the border to erect a wall means that Lebanon has defeated it.
"Israel the great has fallen ... when it hides behind walls then it is weak," he said.
Israeli bulldozers were photographed Wednesday putting up additional fences and fortifications in an attempt to strengthen crucial areas south of the Lebanese border, the Hezbollah-affiliated War Media Center reported.
Three Israeli bulldozers were seen raising new fences near a surveillance tower east of Wazzani, a town near the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The fence, that included barbed wire, was reportedly put up out of fear of Lebanese infiltration.
"Israel is concerned and fears any future combat," Nasrallah said, vowing that any future battle with the Jewish State "will be inside the occupied Palestinian territory. No place will be safe from the resistance rockets and our infantry units."
The Hezbollah chief also sought to soothe the fears of the Lebanese.
"Live your normal daily lives. Don't be afraid. Their rhetoric will not become action. Trust your army, resistance and yourselves," he said.
