Raad Says Israel Fate 'at Stake' if It Wages War on Lebanon
The head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, warned Israel on Monday that its very existence will be “at stake” should it wage a new war on Lebanon.
“Let the Israelis have the illusions they want, but what we have prepared for them allows us to say that the fate of their entity will be at stake should they dare to wage a hostile war against Lebanon,” Raad said at a memorial service in the southern town of Arabsalim.
“The Israeli enemy has lost the ability to wage an attack on us,” Raad boasted.
“This enemy has become incarcerated in the cage of the balance of deterrence that the resistance has created,” the lawmaker went on to say.
And noting that Israel's latest threats and military drills are aimed at “boosting the morale of its troops,” Raad said Hizbullah possesses “the effective weapon that beats all of the enemy's weapons, even if it receives support from all countries in the world.”
Referring to Hizbullah's military presence across Syria, Raad added: “Will this enemy – which was not able to defeat us when we were in south Lebanon – dare to wage a war on us now that we've become deployed across all these territories?”
Raad's remarks come amid threats and counter-threats between Israel and Hizbullah.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has recently warned Israel against attacking Lebanon or Syria, saying "hundreds of thousands" of Arab and Muslim fighters would be ready to strike back.
Hizbullah fighters from Lebanon, and Shiite combatants from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan are battling alongside regime forces in Syria to defend the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The powerful Lebanese, Iran-backed group and Israel have fought many battles including a devastating 34-day war in 2006 that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
Border skirmishes have broken out occasionally since then, and Nasrallah has said that any future confrontation would be "very costly for Israel."
The head of Israel's air force has meanwhile said that his country would have "unimaginable" military power at hand in any future conflict with Hizbullah.
"What the air force was able to do quantitatively in the... Lebanon war over the course of 34 days we can do today in 48-60 hours," Major General Amir Eshel said.
"This is potential power unimaginable in its scope, much different to what we have seen in the past and far greater than people estimate," he added.
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