Hezbollah Says It Does Not Fear War and is Ready If Israel Provokes Further Violence
January 30, 2015
AP - The leader of the militant
Hezbollah group said Friday that this week's deadly cross-border attack
on Israeli soldiers was
a message that it will no longer tolerate any
Israeli attacks against its members.
Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah told thousands of supporters in south Beirut that
Hezbollah does not fear war and is ready if Israel provokes further
violence.
It was Nasrallah's
first comments since six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general were
killed on Jan. 18 in an Israeli airstrike in Syria. The group retaliated
on Wednesday with a cross-border rocket attack that killed two Israeli
soldiers and wounded seven.
The
Hezbollah threat comes as the group, which has an arsenal of tens of
thousands of missiles and rockets, is currently preoccupied with the war
in neighboring Syria — where it is aiding Syrian President Assad's
forces.
"We don't fear war and
we don't hesitate in facing it if it is imposed on us and we will be
victorious, God willing," Nasrallah said, addressing the public rally
through a video link from a secret location.
Several Lebanese officials
as well as Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Iran's influential
parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy,
attended the rally.
Warning Israel against any further attacks, Nasrallah said,
"You tried us once. Don't try us again."
Nasrallah
said Hezbollah will no longer abide by any rules of engagement, stating
that Hezbollah has the right to retaliate against any future Israeli
attack at the time and place of its choosing.
"We,
in the Islamic resistance, are not concerned about anything that is
called rules of engagement," Nasrallah said in his 75-minute speech.
"From now on, if any Hezbollah cadre or member is assassinated we will
blame Israel and we will consider that it is our right to retaliate in
any place, at any time and by any suitable method."
Israel
and Hezbollah last came into direct conflict in 2006 when a monthlong
war killed about 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis and ravaged the
Shiite-dominated region of southern Lebanon as well as the country's
infrastructure.
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