Hezbollah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah:

Any War Would Wipe Out Israel

Date: 13 July 2019 - 21:39

News ID: ۶۸۰۷۳

BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- The head of the Hezbollah resistance movement has warned that the occupying regime of Israel would be drawn into any war between the U.S. and Iran and could be "wiped out” in such a conflict.
"Iran is able to bombard Israel with ferocity and force,” Sayyed Hassan Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview broadcast on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.
"When the Americans understand that this war could wipe out Israel, they will reconsider,” Nasrallah said.
His comments came just hours after U.S. House of Representatives voted to restrict President Donald Trump’s ability to attack Iran, voicing fear that his hawkish policies are pushing toward a needless war.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah has significantly improved its military capabilities since the 2006 war between the resistance movement and the occupying regime of Israel.
"Our weapons have been developed in both quality and quantity, we have precision missiles and drones,” he said in the interview to mark 13 years since the war.
During the interview Nasrallah held a map of Occupied Palestine and pointed to strategic targets, which he said Hezbollah could hit, including Ben Gurion Airport, arms depots, petrochemical and water desalinization plants, and the Ashdod port.
He also said Hezbollah’s missiles could hit the southern city of Eilat on the Red Sea.
Nasrallah hinted Hezbollah had acquired anti-aircraft missiles, saying he preferred to keep an ambiguous stance, adding that the Lebanese resistance movement now had "game-changing offensive capabilities and weapons”.
The Zionist regime has long claimed that Hezbollah plans to try and invade northern occupied Palestinian territories in any future war.
However, Nasrallah said he was confident there would not be a war, because Israel feared the consequences.
He also said regional players were working to prevent a war between the U.S. and Iran. "Our collective responsibility in the region is to work towards preventing an American war on Iran,” he said.
He said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had no interest in a conflict erupting.
In recent weeks the US has sent thousands of troops, an aircraft carrier, nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the Middle East, and fears are growing of a wider conflict after mysterious oil tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz.
Nasrallah also said that the group had recently begun withdrawing its fighters that were supporting the Damascus government in neighboring war-torn Syria.
"We are present in every area that we used to be. We are still there, but we don’t need to be there in large numbers as long as there is no practical need,” he said.
Backed by Russia and Iran, the Damascus government has taken back large swathes of territory from terrorists since 2015, and now controls much of the country.
Nasrallah said none of Hezbollah fighters were currently involved in fighting in Syria’s northwestern region of Idlib, where government and Russian forces have increased deadly bombardment on a Takfiri-run bastion since late April.
He spoke after Washington announced fresh sanctions Tuesday against Hezbollah, targeting elected officials from the movement for the first time.
"All dealings with the Syria file has nothing to do with the sanctions or the financial austerity,” he said.
Hezbollah is blacklisted by the United States, but it is also a major political player in the small Mediterranean country, taking 13 seats in parliament last year and securing three posts in the current cabinet.
Nasrallah said the United States has been attempting to open communications with his group despite imposing new sanctions against its leaders.
The administration of President Trump "is seeking to open channels of communication to Hizballah in Lebanon through mediators.... These are the American pragmatists," he said.