Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah 370. (photo credit: REUTERS/Hasan Shaaban)
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that Israel is scared of another war with his Lebanese Shiite group and that the United States has placed sanctions because they have “failed in their military campaigns.”
“What the Zion-American enemy failed to obtain during the military campaigns it wants to achieve through imposing sanctions on the Syrian people, besieging the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, causing starvation in Yemen and blacklisting Hezbollah,” Nasrallah said during a televised addressed marking the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Resistance Support Association, a charity used to raise funds for the group.
Pointing to the US military’s deployment advanced THAAD missile defense system in Israel for joint exercises this past week, Nasrallah said that it was proof Israel’s inability to protect the country from Hezbollah’s missile arsenal in a future war between the two foes.
“Israel is scared of a new war,” he said. “Everyday you hear that Israel is not prepared for war in one way or another and this week you saw Israel began using the American THAAD system. The Israelis do not believe in their defense systems and are afraid, and that is why they have set up US-made defense systems. The Israeli army is afraid of war against us and they know why. We’ll break them on the battlefield. No advanced missile defense systems will help.”
Nasrallah is believed to have been living in a secure bunker, apparently located in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiya, for several years in order to prevent an assassination attempt. In mid-February he said that the group’s power has been increasing “daily” even under “unfavorable conditions” and have reached a level where they are more powerful than they were 20 years ago.
Speaking during a ceremony to mark “Martyrs Remembrance Day,” Nasrallah said the “resistance gained its strength and power, and achieved victories in bad circumstances imposed by the US, Israel, and their allies in the region the Takifiris, Saudi alignment, and the Emirates.”
The leader of the Shiite Lebanese terror group spoke for over an hour in the third speech in several weeks after months of silence and said there are between “35-40 resistance axes around the world” with people who are ready to sacrifice themselves for Hezbollah.
Israel and Hezbollah last fought a war – the Second Lebanon War – in 2006, and has since then morphed from a guerrilla group to an army with a set hierarchy and procedures. With the help of Iran, it has rebuilt its arsenal since 2006 and has hundreds of thousands of short-range rockets and several thousand more missiles that can reach deeper into Israel.
Israel’s air defenses currently include the Iron Dome, designed to shoot down short-range rockets and the Arrow system which intercepts ballistic missiles outside of the Earth’s atmosphere and the David’s Sling missile defense system which is designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, medium- to long-range rockets, as well as cruise missiles fired at ranges between 40 to 300km.
Built by Lockheed-Martin the THAAD system is considered one of the most advanced systems of its kind in the world, and during the drill will be added to the existing Israeli air defense systems which defend against long-range ballistic missiles, giving the IDF an “opportunity to practice it’s integration in the IAF Air Defense Array.”
Washington and Israel have signed an agreement which would see the US come to assist Israel with missile defense in times of war.
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