Nasrallah renews warning to Israel, says Hezbollah not behind al-Hajj's case
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel anew on Monday that it would not be able to extract gas from the Karish field without a sea border agreement with Lebanon.
“If the extraction of oil and gas from Karish begins in September before Lebanon obtains its right, we would be heading to ‘a problem’ and we'll do anything to achieve our objective,” Nasrallah said in an interview on al-Mayadeen TV.
“No one wishes for war and the decision is in Israel's hands, not in our hands,” he said.
“The U.S. president does not want a war in the region and this is a chance for us to press to get our oil,” Nasrallah added.
He again warned Israel that “all fields are under threat, not only Karish,” adding that “no Israeli target at sea or on land is out of the reach of the resistance's precision missiles.”
“Such an action, whether in Karish or beyond, is hinging on the Israeli enemy's decision along with the U.S., and the Lebanese state offered a major concession in what it demanded through the U.S. mediator when it spoke of Line 23+,” Nasrallah said.
“The ball now is not in Lebanon's court, because it is the party barred from extracting oil and gas in the undisputed area, and what's needed is to abide by the limits demanded by the Lebanese state and to lift the veto off the companies that will extract the oil,” he added.
Asked whether Hezbollah has the ability to win a future war with Israel, Nasrallah said: “I tell the Lebanese people that they should be confident in the resistance's capabilities.”
“We have not asked anyone to join a future war on our side but it is not known if other forces might join such a war and this is a strong probability,” he added.
Asked about the controversy over General Security’s interrogation and search of Archbishop Moussa al-Hajj upon his return from Israel to Lebanon, Nasrallah emphasized that “the Lebanese security agencies do not work at Hezbollah's instructions.”
“There is a law in Lebanon and security agencies address everything related to collaboration with Israel,” he noted.
“Hezbollah knew of the archbishop's case from the media,” Nasrallah pointed out.
“I tell all Lebanese people, especially Christians, that Hezbollah has nothing to do at all with Archbishop al-Hajj's case,” he said.
Warning that “what happened over the past two days over Archbishop’s al-Hajj case will not keep a state, institutions or a judiciary,” Nasrallah noted that “the transfer of money from occupied Palestine to Lebanon is an outlawed action regardless of its reasons.”
"Judge (Fadi) Akiki is being accused of treason because he ordered General Security to search the archbishop's suitcases, and today the marginalization of security agencies and the judiciary is being practiced by those who objected against us when we spoke of the port blast incident," Nasrallah added.
As for the upcoming presidential election in Lebanon, Nasrallah said: “We in Hezbollah have not started discussing the presidential candidates yet and we will not have a candidate but will rather decide whom to support among the natural candidates.”
Source: Naharnet
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