Wednesday 1 April 2009

Hezbollah braced for Israeli attack



Press TV

Hezbollah says it is fully prepared to teach Tel Aviv another lesson should Israel seek to threaten Lebanon with new aggression.

"Israel will pay the price for any possible attack on Lebanon, and will receive the proper response," head of Hezbollah's members of parliament bloc Mouhamad Raad said Monday.

He, however, reaffirmed that the resistance movement was not seeking to wage war in the region.

"We will not carry out any operation outside our Lebanese territories, but we will not accept after today that the enemy (Israel) stages any assault against our land," he added.

Israel launched an offensive against Lebanon to destroy the Hezbollah resistance power in the summer of 2006. Eventually, however, it was forced to leave the region without achieving any of its objectives.

The conflict which lasted for 33 day resulted in a heavy defeat for Tel Aviv.

Regarding the Western attempts to open dialogue with the movement, Raad said "Hezbollah welcomes this gesture," but added that "it is a mistake if we assume the United States will abandon Israel for the sake of the Arabs."

Earlier this month, the British Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Bill Rammel, said that his country was ready for direct dialogue with Hezbollah, given the improvement of political relations in Lebanon over the last year.

"The United States' interest is with Israel, and the US foreign policy will not change," he added.

Britain's stance was welcomed by Hezbollah but the movement reiterated that any talks should be held in an open and transparent manner.


Posted by JNOUBIYEH at 2:56 PM 0 comments

No comments: