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[webfact]

Hezbollah says future war would be onIsraeli territory

By Ellen Francis and Laila Bassam

REUTERS

 

Son of Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, who was killed in an attack in Syria, listens as Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters from a screen during a ceremony marking a year after Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine's death, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

 

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah said on Thursday that any future conflict between the Shi'ite group and Israel could take place inside Israeli territory, as tensions rise between the arch foes.

 

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, also said in a speech televised live that the group was dismantling all its military positions along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, and this area would now be patrolled just by the Lebanese army.

 

Hezbollah, an ally of Tehran and Damascus, has been fighting for years in Syria's conflict against an array of rebels and Sunni Islamist fighters.

 

The Syrian conflict has also been an arena where tensions between Israeland Hezbollah have ramped up. Recent Israeli air strikes against Hezbollah targets in Syria appeared to mark a more assertive stance towards the group.

 

The two sides last fought a war in 2006.

 

Nasrallah played down the prospects of another imminent conflict, but warned it could take place on Israeli territory, after saying earlier this year that Hezbollah's rockets could hit targets anywhere inside the country.

 

Israel "is scared and worried of any future confrontation ... and knows that it could be inside the occupied Palestinian territories," Nasrallah said. "There will be no place that is out of reach of the rockets of the resistance or the boots of the resistance fighters."

 

Since the 2006 war, Nasrallah has often used his speeches to highlight the group's military capabilities in any potential future conflict with Israel, in what experts see as a calculated policy of deterrence.

 

Israel meanwhile is determined to stop Hezbollah, which it sees as the top strategic threat on its borders, from using its role in the Syrian war to gain weapons and experience that could ultimately endanger Israel.

 

Strikes carried out by Israel inside Syria have destroyed weapons Israelsays were destined for Hezbollah, and have killed Hezbollah commanders.

 

'NEW PHASE' IN SYRIA

 

Nasrallah said Hezbollah was pulling out of areas along the Lebanon-Syria border, suggesting that the group had helped make the area secure.

 

"Along the eastern Lebanese border there is no longer a need for our presence, so now we have dismantled and will dismantle (our) remaining military positions. The mission has been accomplished ... from now on (this area is) the responsibility of the state," he said.

 

Sunni Islamist militants have regularly crossed the porous border in Lebanon's northeast, and staged a brief takeover of a the Lebanese town of Arsal in 2014 before being driven out. The militants have come under fire from the army and Hezbollah in that area.

 

Nasrallah said Syria's conflict had reached a "new and critical phase" with insurgents severely weakened, and that Damascus, Moscow, Tehran and Hezbollah were "in more harmony politically and militarily than at any time".

 

Any chance to halt the fighting was positive and should be supported, he said, in apparent reference to a Russian-led initiative to set up "de-escalation zones" in Syria.

 

He also appeared to take aim at U.S. President Donald Trump, saying that leaders attending an upcoming summit between the United States and Gulf Arab states in Saudi Arabia "will go to see if there are still billions of dollars, oil and gas".

 

Nasrallah blasted Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for recent pejorative comments about the Shi'ite religious beliefs of Iran's leadership.

 

"When the Mahdi comes ... no oppressive king or tyrant will be left," he said, referring to the Shi'ite belief that a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed who vanished 1,000 years ago will re-emerge to establish global Islamic rule.

 

(Writing by John Davison; Editing by Catherine Evans)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-12

[ezzra]

53 minutes ago, webfact said:

Nasrallah

 

The man who hides in a bunker for the last few years not showing himself out for too long for fears of being taken out by an Israeli drone or helicopter gunship should be the last to speak, but what dose he cares if thousands of him men died in Syria already for fighting a war in a foreign country?....

[Morch]

This is not exactly news. Hezbollah representatives said as much for last three years, and the IFD seems to concur. Given that the Hezbollah's involvement in Syria improved both combat experience and gear, breaching Israeli lines, and even temporally taking over civilian settlements near the border, is the new reality. In recent years the IDF addressed this by constructing various obstacles (mostly through landscaping) along the border, and putting plans in place to evacuate the population southward in case war breaks out. I don't think it changes much with regard to how things will pan out, but definitely would be a "score" as far as Hezbollah goes, mostly for PR.

 

With regard to the above, inane commentary - as in other similar instances, Israel was neither invited to join a coalition, nor would it be welcome by participating Arab forces. An open Israeli participation would undermine  US efforts, not enhance them.

 

 

[Scott]

Off-topic post and replies removed.  

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.