Hezbollah says Israel pushing region to war

World Sunday 01/October/2017 16:46 PM
By: Times News Service
Hezbollah says Israel pushing region to war

Beirut: Lebanon's Hezbollah accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government on Sunday of pushing the region to war in Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and said nowhere in Israel would be safe if such a conflict were to erupt.
Tensions have risen this year between Hezbollah and its arch enemy Israel, which last fought a major conflict in 2006. Israel has said it would use all its strength from the start in any new war with Hezbollah.
In a speech to followers, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli government did not have "a correct assessment of where this war will lead if they ignite it", and did not know how it would end.
"They do not have a correct picture about what is awaiting them if they go to the idiocy of this war," Nasrallah said.
Israel does not know where such a conflict would be fought, or who would take part, he added.
Nasrallah said earlier this year that a future Israeli war against Syria or Lebanon could draw thousands of fighters from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Pakistan, and could take place inside Israel.
Nasrallah was speaking on Sunday on the occasion of Ashura.
Were war to erupt, he said, they might not have long to leave.
"They will have no secure place in occupied Palestine," he said.
Netanyahu said in August that Iran was building sites to produce precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon, with the aim of using them against Israel.
The group's role in Syria is the focus of controversy in Lebanon.
Hezbollah's opponents say it has dragged Lebanon into the conflict.
Hezbollah says it has stopped extremist groups such as IS from advancing into Lebanon from Syria.
Nasrallah said the battle against IS must continue "in every place to eliminate Daesh".