US, Israel Fearful of War with Iran: Hezbollah Chief
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement downplayed Washington’s warmongering tone concerning Iran, saying the United States and the Israeli regime are frightened of engaging in military conflict with the Islamic Republic.
Today, the United States is fearful of engaging in a war with Iran since the Islamic Republic is a strong and sovereign country, Seyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview on Tuesday with Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam news network.
Neither is the US capable of stopping Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program, he added.
Any military action by the Israeli regime against Iran too would be met by “a very intense and harsh” response on the part of the Islamic Republic, Nasrallah said, adding, “(Therefore), the Israeli regime (too) is afraid of Iran’s reprisal.
“Iran is not on joking terms with anyone. It will retaliate (for any military action).”
He further said the 1979 Islamic Revolution successfully cut the hands of the United States and the Israeli regime off Iran.
“The Islamic Revolution pushed Israel and the US out of Iran,” Nasrallah said, as Iranians are celebrating the 43rd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which toppled the US-backed Pahlavi regime.
“Today, the Islamic Republic is the model of independence and freedom across the Islamic world and the entire world, while before the Revolution, Iran was controlled by the US,” he said, according to Press TV.
The Hezbollah chief added that the Islamic Republic of today is a “great regional power” that cannot be simply ignored or fought off.
It was “true Islam” that brought about Iran’s Islamic Revolution because “it is true Islam that stands up to oppression and atrocity,” Nasrallah said.
“This is the exact thing that the US does not brook,” he stated, noting that Washington’s enmity towards Tehran is rooted in the emergence of an independent establishment in Iran that enjoys popular sovereignty.
The Israeli regime, Nasrallah further said, would never be capable of reaching its goals concerning Hezbollah through warfare.
“Were the Israeli regime certain that it would be victorious in a (potential) war with Hezbollah, it would not hesitate for even a moment (to launch such a war),” he said.
The resistance movement is, however, not afraid of war and does not surrender in the face of threats either, said the official and asserted that the resistance’s approach rests in “deploying whatever weapon to confront the Israeli threats.”
Hezbollah has activated its air defense systems to confront the Israeli regime’s incessant violations of the Lebanese airspace, something that has “greatly reduced” the breaches, he said.
What links Iran and Hezbollah is the issue of resistance, which is a “national interest,” Nasrallah said.
He, meanwhile, roundly rejected allegations that the Iranian Embassy in Beirut intervenes in any fashion in Hezbollah’s decision-making procedures.
