BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A member of the Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement says the war games jointly held by Arab states and the Zionist regime will embolden the occupying regime to conduct more acts of aggression.
Nabil Qaouk, deputy member of Hezbollah executive council, made the remarks on Saturday, three days after the United States began its first joint naval drill with the occupying regime, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain in the Red Sea.
“The military exercises held by the Arab countries and the Zionist regime are a dagger in the heart of Al-Quds, Palestine and all the nations of the region,” he said.
“It encourages the Zionist enemy to carry out further acts of aggression against Lebanon and Palestine, and is a stain of shame on the foreheads of the leaders of the normalization with the Zionist regime,” the official added.
The UAE and Bahrain last year normalized diplomatic ties with Zionist regime under a U.S.-brokered deal, which the Palestinians condemned as a treacherous “stab in the back” of their cause against the decades-long occupation.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Qaouk said the weapons of the resistance are needed to confront the regime’s enemy and would always remain so, al-Manar TV channel reported.
“Regardless of all the external pressure, crises, and foreign intervention, the priority of the resistance will be increased readiness to confront Israeli aggression. We promise to create a victory even greater than those of 2000 and 2006,” he noted.
The Hezbollah official also stressed that the resistance has since 2006 increased its power both in quantity and quality and turned into a “strong fortress” protecting Lebanon and the Lebanese people.
“With the army-nation-resistance equation, southern Lebanon (where the country’s resistance movement is based) constitutes today the frontline of defending Lebanon’s dignity and sovereignty,” he said.
Hezbollah was established following the 1982 Zionist invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. Since then, the popular resistance group has grown into a powerful military force.
Lebanon fought off two wars with the Zionist regime in 2000 and 2006. On both occasions, battleground contribution by Hezbollah proved an indispensable asset, forcing the occupying regime’s military into a retreat and shattering the myth of the occupying entity’s invincibility.