Hezbollah says Israel wants to set ‘new rules’
An Israeli attack which killed several prominent members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah last week was an attempt by Israel to set “new rules” in the conflict between the two foes, Hezbollah’s deputy leader said at a gathering to commemorate those who died.
Shaikh Naim Qassem’s comments
were the first reaction from the group’s leadership to the missile
attack in the Syrian province of Quneitra near the Israeli border.
Among those killed was an
Iranian officer and the son of Hezbollah’s late military chief. Israel
has struck Hezbollah in Syria several times since the conflict there
began, hitting weapons deliveries, but the group did not acknowledge
these attacks.
However, the prominence of
those killed in the latest raid will make it difficult to ignore for
Hezbollah, putting the group under pressure to retaliate and also
undermining a ceasefire between Israel and Syria.
“It is a Zionist attempt to
lay the foundation for a new (military) equation in the framework of our
struggle with them and achieve by these strikes what they could not
achieve in war ... But Israel is too weak to be able to draw new steps
or new rules,” he told mourners.
Qassem did not elaborate but
hinted that the group would respond. He said Hezbollah leader Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah would give the group’s formal stance in the coming
days.
Hezbollah,
which fought a 34-day war against Israel in 2006, could attack Israel
from its Lebanon stronghold, hit Israeli interests abroad, or attack
Israeli posts in the Occupied Golan Heights.
All options could trigger another all-out war or even a wider conflict between Israel and Syria.
Fighters from Iran-backed
Hezbollah have been fighting alongside government forces in Syria’s
civil war and have helped turn the tide in favour of President Bashar Al
Assad.
The group says it is fighting
in Syria in part to prevent Islamist militant fighters, such as Al
Qaida’s Syrian wing, the Nusra Front, and Daesh, from advancing into
Lebanon.
Source: http://gulfnews.com
Source: http://gulfnews.com
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