Nasrallah to Zionist Regime: Stop Playing With Fire

Date: 17 February 2021 - 21:57

News ID: ۸۷۷۵۱

BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- Hezbollah’s secretary-general has warned Israel not to play with fire, saying any act of aggression by the occupying regime against Lebanon will be met by a strong response from the resistance movement.
Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a televised speech late Tuesday on the martyrdom anniversary of a number of top Hezbollah commanders, including Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Syria in February 2008.
Hezbollah, he said, does not seek a military confrontation but it will display a resistance much stronger than ever before if it is pushed into one.
"Israel has never committed itself to international law, it has destroyed cities and killed civilians in all its wars,” the Hezbollah chief said in the televised speech.
"We are not looking for a confrontation but we do not forget the blood of our martyrs,” he said, but "If a confrontation happens we will respond to it; if you attack our cities we will attack yours; if you target our villages, we will bomb your settlements.”
Referring to the Israeli combat drills that took place along the Lebanese border earlier this month, Nasrallah said they would be a dangerous game for the Israelis and would bring about undesirable consequences.
"Should war erupt, Israelis will see events they haven’t witness since 1948. So, stop playing with fire. We are in the Resistance era,” Nasrallah said, in reference to the illegal creation of the regime on occupied Palestinian territory in 1948.
The Hezbollah chief also welcomed Washington’s decision to stop support for the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen, calling it a "positive step”.
The decision, however, was the result of the "steadfastness of the Yemenis” as the Yemeni forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees which are in an advanced position on all fronts, he said.
Nasrallah stressed that the U.S. announcement was a cause for concern for the Saudi and the occupying regime of Israel.
Saudi Arabia launched a war on Yemen in March 2015 with the aim of reinstalling Yemen’s former pro-Riyadh government and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement.
The war, which has also been accompanied by an all-out siege of Yemen, has killed more than 110,000 people and turned the impoverished Arab country into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
In his speech, Nasrallah also pointed to the so-called deal of the century initiated by former U.S. President Donald Trump, saying the accord is on its last legs.
"Nobody is talking today about the deal that seems to have ended or is in a state of retreat and is out of breath, as a result of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian leaderships, and the axis of resistance,” he said.
Defying international outcry, Trump last January announced the general provisions of his long-delayed plan at the White House with Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu by his side.
The Hezbollah chief further censured agreements between a few Arab states and the Zionist regime on normalization of relations, saying Israel is "exaggerating” the issue for political gains.
"The Israeli regime is exaggerating the issue of normalization for political benefits, on the other hand, we see opposition in some Arab countries against their governments’ normalization with Israel,” Nasrallah said.
"Arab individuals who are boasting about their Israeli visits don’t represent the 1.5 billion Arabs and Muslims; those have even admitted of being paid to make such visits,” the Hezbollah chief added.
The normalization deals have drawn widespread condemnation from Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem Al-Quds as its capital. They say the deals are "a stab in the back” of the Palestinians.