- Title: LEBANON: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatens Israel over future conflict
- Date: 17th February 2010
- Summary: CHILD WEARING MILITARY UNIFORM
- Embargoed: 4th March 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Lebanon
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVACR9P7IYONBSXW7R4DOEL514CJ
- Story Text: Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday (February 16) the Shi'ite guerrilla group would hit Israel's Ben Gurion airport if the Jewish state struck Beirut's international airport in any future war.
Nasrallah's comments came amid recent heated anti-Israeli comments in the region including from Syrian, Iranian and Lebanese leaders.
"If you hit Rafik al-Hariri international airport in Beirut, we will hit Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv," Nasrallah said via a live video-link.
"If you hit our ports, we will bomb your ports, and if you hit our oil refineries, we will bomb your oil refineries."
Last year Nasrallah threatened to attack Tel Aviv if Israel were to bomb Beirut's southern suburbs, a bastion of the powerful Shi'ite military and political group.
"You will destroy buildings in Beirut's southern suburb and we will destroy buildings in Tel Aviv." Nasrallah said.
"We in Lebanon, people, resistance and national army, are capable to protect our country and we don't need anyone in this world to protect Lebanon," he said.
Hezbollah fought against Israel in a 34-day war in 2006 after the group captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Some 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, were killed and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died.
Israel pounded Beirut's southern suburbs as well as mainly Shi'ite southern Lebanon where Hezbollah maintains a stronghold and from which Israel withdrew in 2000.
Israeli bombing also hit bridges, roads, airport runways, ports, factories, power and water networks, and military installations, and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Nasrallah was speaking at an event marking the second anniversary of the assassination of military commander Imad Moughniyah.
The Shi'ite group has blamed Israel for the 2008 bombing that killed him in Damascus, and has vowed revenge. Israel has denied involvement, and said that it has since foiled several Hezbollah attempts to kidnap Israelis abroad. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.