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‘Stop playing with fire,’ Nasrallah warns Israel

Secretary General of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, delivers a live speech from Beirut, Lebanon, on February 16, 2021.

Hezbollah’s secretary-general has warned the Israeli regime not to play with fire, saying any Israeli act of aggression against Lebanon will be met by a strong response from the resistance movement.

Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a televised speech on Tuesday in commemoration of the martyrdom anniversary of a number of top Hezbollah commanders, including Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Syria in February 2008.

Nasrallah insisted that Hezbollah 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, [the regime 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 underlined. “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 Israeli combat drills that took place along the Lebanese border earlier this month, Nasrallah warned the occupying regime against intimidation and said the combat drills 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.

US ditching support for Yemen war ‘positive step’    

During the televised speech, the secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement hailed as a "positive step” Washington’s announcement to stop its support for the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen.

Nasrallah said the US decision came as a result of the “steadfastness of the Yemenis” as the Yemeni forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees are in an advanced position on all fronts.

The Hezbollah chief also stressed that the announcement was a cause for concern for the Saudi and Israeli regime.

US President Joe Biden announced earlier in the month an end to Washington’s support for Saudi-led aggression on Yemen, in a reversal of the previous administration’s foreign policy.

Riyadh, together with its allies chief among them being the United Arab Emirates (UAE), launched a war on Yemen in March 2015 with the aim of reinstalling Yemen’s former pro-Riyadh government and crushing the popular Houthi 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.

Trump’s so-called deal of the century on its last legs

Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah pointed to the so-called deal of the century initiated by former US President Donald Trump and said the deal had lost steam.

"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 noted.

Defying international outcry, Trump last January announced the general provisions of his long-delayed plan at the White House with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side.

Among other controversial terms, Trump's highly provocative scheme allows the regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley, which for the Palestinians would mean giving up a claim to large amounts of West Bank land — including places where Israel has built illegal settlements over the past half-century.

Trump's plan also denies the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homeland, which is in complete disregard of UN Security Council resolutions and has been rejected by the vast majority of the international community.

Tel Avivi ‘exaggerating’ normalization deals

Moreover, the secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah censured the so-called agreements between a few Arab states and Israel regime on the normalization of relations, and said the regime was “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.


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