Bou Habib says Lebanon readiness for war remarks were a 'gaffe'

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has said that his recent remarks about Lebanon’s readiness to engage in a war with Israel were a “gaffe or a mistake.”

Bou Habib blamed the “circumstances” that surrounded his interview in Antalia for the blunder.

Noting that “Hezbollah is ready for war,” the minister stressed that “the Lebanese Army will not fight Israel or any side, but if Israel invades Lebanon we will be obliged to defend ourselves.”

He added: “I don’t believe that Israel will engage in a war with Lebanon. This is my personal opinion and not my opinion as a politician.”

Hezbollah had activated Lebanon’s southern front with Israel on October 8 in solidarity with the Palestinians and the Hamas Movement following the latter’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel and the brutal war that ensued.

There have been near-daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israel ever since, resulting in the death of at least 326 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 57 civilians.

Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north and Israel has threatened to launch a major attack on Hezbollah in order to secure its northern border.