Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday that his militants would bomb military, civilian and commercial ships heading to Israel in the event of a new war with the Jewish state.
“If you [Israel] launch a new war on Lebanon, if you blockade our coastline, all military, civilian or commercial ships heading through the Mediterranean to occupied Palestine will be targeted by the Islamic resistance,” Nasrallah said in a speech transmitted via video link to thousands of supporters massed in Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“Whether along the northern or southern Israeli shore, we can target ships, bomb them and hit them, God willing,” he said, speaking on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after a 22-year occupation.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“When the world sees how these ships are destroyed, no one will dare go there [Israel],” he said. “You will forgive me if one ship manages to slip through.”
Nasrallah also reiterated past threats of bombing Israeli airports and other strategic targets if a new war was to erupt.
His speech came against a backdrop of tension in the region following allegations that the Shiite party, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006, was stockpiling sophisticated new weapons in anticipation of a new conflict.
Nasrallah said in his hour-long speech that he would not comment on his party’s military capacity so as to reserve a “surprise” for Israel in the event of a new conflict.
“The enemy is scared and we will keep him scared, but you [the Lebanese] should feel assured because the equation has changed,” he said, referring to Israel.
“In the next war, we will resist, come out victorious and change the face of the region, God willing,” he said to applause.
Nasrallah accused Israeli leaders of spreading allegations that Syria was transferring Scud missiles to Hezbollah in order to garner further US financial assistance.
“Despite its economic crisis, the US finds money to assist Israel,” Nasrallah said.
He said his party was not seeking a new conflict and would neither confirm nor deny Israel’s allegations concerning the Scuds.
“If you are strong, the world respects you and talks to you, and takes you into account and as such we can impose our conditions,” he said. “If you are weak, you will be eaten.”
His speech came as Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was on his first official visit to the US, where he met on Monday with US President Barack Obama, who raised the issue of illegal arms smuggled into Lebanon.
Yesterday, Hariri was to address the UN Security Council, chaired this month by Lebanon.
Hezbollah, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Washington, has two ministers in the Lebanese government.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing