Iran threatens war if Israel takes action against Hezbollah

Iran is threatening a “devastating war” if Israel starts a full-scale conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The thunderous warning came after Israel Defense Forces struck several Hezbollah targets on Friday in retaliation for the Iran-backed terror group’s rocket attack on northern Israel earlier in the day.

“If (Israel) launches a full-scale military aggression, it will be a devastating war,” the Iranian UN mission said in a post on X late Friday.

The statement said Iran viewed Israeli threats against Hezbollah as “psychological warfare” and “propaganda,” but added that if Israel “launches a full-scale military aggression, it will result in a devastating war.”

The statement added that “all options are on the table, including the full participation of all resistance fronts,” referring to the “axis of resistance” that includes Tehran-backed proxies of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen.

Skirmishes have broken out on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon for nearly nine months since Hamas’s murderous attack on the Jewish state on October 7. Tens of thousands of Israelis have fled the northern region for fear of a similar attack by Hezbollah, which launches rocket attacks across the border almost daily in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.

Concerns that the conflict in the north could escalate into a full-scale war have increased in recent weeks after Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander, prompting the terror group to respond with rocket attacks.

According to a Washington Post report, US authorities are trying to de-escalate violence with Hezbollah and prevent the fighting from escalating into a two-front war, while also working on a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Hezbollah said an end to the war in Gaza was essential to ending fighting on the Lebanese border, but US officials suggested there may be other alternatives that do not require a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, without giving details.

Meanwhile, US envoys recently presented new wording for a proposed hostage ceasefire after Hamas rejected the three-phase plan outlined by the White House and approved by Israel’s now-disbanded war cabinet earlier this month, Axios reported.

The United States, along with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, is focusing on amending a part of the ceasefire agreement known as Article 8, which concerns negotiations that are to take place during a six-week ceasefire in the agreement’s first phase.

“The US is working very hard to find a formula that will allow an agreement,” a source told Axios.

The proposal calls for a six-week ceasefire in the first phase of the agreement. In return, Hamas must release the living women, elderly and sick of the remaining 116 hostages kidnapped on October 7. All other living hostages still held in Gaza, including young men and male soldiers, are to be released in the second phase of the agreement.

Hamas, on the other hand, wants the talks in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement to focus exclusively on the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for live male hostages. Israel, on the other hand, is trying to address the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, among other issues, in this first phase of the talks.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 14 that he was only interested in a “partial agreement” with Hamas that would provide for the release of some hostages and allow Israel to continue its fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The next day he retracted his statement and reiterated the ceasefire proposal.

In other news:

• The United Nations has begun distributing food aid brought into Gaza via the US-built floating pier, the first time since June 9, when aid was suspended due to security concerns, NBC News reported.

• According to Reuters, the Biden administration has delivered more than 10,000 devastating 2,000-pound bombs, thousands of Hellfire missiles and large quantities of other munitions to Israel since the Gaza war began.

With post wires.