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Hezbollah offers Israel a deal
03/08/2006 23:01 - (SA)
Beirut - The leader of Hezbollah warned
Israel on Thursday they would fire rockets at Tel Aviv if Israel
targeted central Beirut, but offered to stop the rocket barrage
if Israel ended attacks on civilian areas in Lebanon.
"(If) at any time you decide to stop your campaigns on our
cities, suburbs, civilians and infrastructure, we won't strike
with rockets any settlement or Israeli city ...," said Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah in a taped televised message.
"If you strike Beirut, the Islamic Resistance will strike
Tel Aviv and it is able to do so."
It was the group's first direct claim that it had
longer-range missiles that could hit the central Israel city, 130km south of Lebanon.
A senior Israeli military source was swift to react, telling
Israel's Channel One television that the Jewish state would
destroy Lebanese infrastructure if Tel Aviv was attacked.
Not a classic army
Israeli jets bombed Hezbollah-dominated suburbs of Beirut
for the first time in days overnight.
Nasrallah dismissed assessments by Israeli leaders that
Hezbollah had been severely weakened and its capabilities
diminished.
"You can't destroy Hezbollah... because the resistance is
not a classic army or a regular state..." he said. "The
resistance is a people who has the belief, the will and who
loves martyrdom.
"The resistance will not be broken, the resistance will not
be defeated."
Eleven Israelis dead
Hezbollah rockets killed eight people in northern Israel on
Thursday and at least three Israeli soldiers died in combat in
southern Lebanon, the highest number of Israelis killed in one
day since fighting began on July 12.
Nasrallah said Israeli ground forces were not achieving much
success in south Lebanon, although he acknowledged they had
advanced on several fronts in the border area.
"The Israeli army is a giant machine that is blind, stupid
and incapable," he said.
The black-turbaned cleric, looking relaxed, took a swipe at
the United States, vowing that Lebanon would never fall into
Washington's hands.
"I assure (you that) whatever the results of the war,
Lebanon won't be American and Lebanon won't be Israeli and
Lebanon won't be one of the bases for the 'new Middle East'
which (President) George Bush wants and which (secretary of
state) Condoleezza Rice wants."
'Stop the aggression'
Nasrallah also said Israel could not rely on the US to come to its rescue in Lebanon.
"If you're betting on the US administration and that it is able to save you, it's incapable of saving itself in Iraq or Afghanistan, along with coming to save you in Lebanon, so what can it do?
"The only correct choice is to stop the aggression and to
listen to the political process and to stop this nonsense that
you have committed and won't end except in Lebanon's victory."
- Reuters
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