Israel will be the ‘ultimate loser’ in war with Hezbollah, says Iran | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

Israel announces that it will soon take “the necessary decisions” regarding the confrontation with the Lebanese group allied with Iran.

Iran says Hezbollah is capable of defending itself and Lebanon and warns Israel that it would be the “ultimate loser” in a full-scale war with the Lebanese armed group.

Tehran’s statement on Friday came at a time when fears of a large-scale Israeli offensive in Lebanon continued to grow.

“Any ill-advised decision by the Israeli occupation regime to save itself could plunge the region into a new war, resulting in the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure as well as the territories occupied in 1948,” the Iranian mission to the United Nations said in a social media post.

“There is no doubt that there will be a final loser in this war, namely the Zionist regime. The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah is capable of defending itself and Lebanon – perhaps the time has come for the self-destruction of this illegitimate regime.”

Israel also issued a threat against Iran’s ally Hezbollah on Friday. Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that the “necessary decisions” regarding a confrontation with the Lebanese group would be made “soon.”

“The free world must stand unconditionally with Israel in its war against the axis of evil led by Iran and extremist Islam. Our war is your war too,” Katz said.

Israel cannot allow the terrorist organization Hezbollah to continue attacking its territory and citizens. Soon we will make the necessary decisions. The free world must stand unconditionally by Israel in its war against the axis of evil led by Iran and extremist Islam. Our…

— Welcome to Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) 21 June 2024

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said this week that if the Israeli military invades Lebanon, his group would use its missiles and drones to attack targets across Israeli territory. He warned that Hezbollah would wage a war “without restraint, without rules and without limits.”

Nasrallah also threatened Cyprus, a European Union member state located in the eastern Mediterranean west of the Lebanese and Israeli coasts. He said the group had information that Israel was conducting military exercises in Cyprus on terrain similar to that of southern Lebanon.

Nasrallah added that Israel plans to use airports and bases in Cyprus for military purposes if its own infrastructure becomes a target in the event of a major war.

“Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to attack Lebanon means that the Cypriot government has become part of the war and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” he said, without elaborating.

Cyprus said Nasrallah’s threat was unrealistic and stressed that the country maintains good relations with Lebanon.

Still, Hezbollah’s statement heightened fears of an even larger regional war that could spill beyond Lebanon’s borders and draw groups allied with Iran – if not Tehran itself – as well as the United States into the conflict.

One day after the Gaza war broke out on October 7, Hezbollah began attacking military bases in northern Israel, calling it a “support front” to support Palestinian groups. Israel responded by bombing southern Lebanese villages and Hezbollah positions.

Although the almost daily clashes in Lebanon and Israel have forced tens of thousands of people to flee, the conflicts have largely been limited to the border areas.

But violence has escalated in recent weeks, especially after an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon last week.

On Friday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for several military operations against Israel, including a drone attack on a coastal base west of the border that it said was directed against Israeli forces.

The US is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but is concerned about Hezbollah’s attacks. “We have made it very clear that we do not want an escalation of this conflict,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Thursday.

Hezbollah, for its part, has said it will continue its operations against the Israeli military until Israel ends its war in the Gaza Strip, in which more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed.