Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is in danger of triggering “a big war” in the Middle East, according to Israel’s top military intelligence officer.
“The chances of an escalation that could deteriorate into war is not low,” Israeli Defense Forces military intelligence chief Aharon Haliva said Monday at Reichman University’s Institute for Policy and Strategy. “Nasrallah is close to making a mistake that could plunge the region into a big war. He is close to making this mistake from Lebanon or Syria.”
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Haliva aired the warning one day after another Hezbollah official boasted that the terror group could “rain down our precision missiles” on Israel during war games in southern Lebanon. The Hezbollah threat came on the heels of a clash between Israeli and Palestinian forces in Gaza, but other Lebanese factions took it as a threat as well.
“Hezbollah is more concerned with its own interests, and those of its patron Iran, than what is best for the Lebanese people,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Monday.
Iran has aided Hezbollah in stockpiling tens of thousands of rockets and missiles in recent years. And Lebanese Hezbollah forces have contributed to Iran’s efforts to ensure the survival of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s regime. Israeli forces have conducted airstrikes intended to prevent Iran from establishing military positions on the Syrian-Israeli border, but Tehran enjoyed a diplomatic victory earlier this month when Assad was granted admission back into the Arab League.
“All this creates a high potential for an escalation in the region, and we need to be prepared that our enemies won’t understand the message we’re sending,” Haliva said.
Hezbollah’s precision-guided munitions arsenal has haunted U.S. and Israeli officials for several years, alongside the simmering development of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Assad’s stabilization could foreshadow a renewed effort by Iran to threaten Israel from multiple fronts, Israeli officials suspect.
“Iran is the biggest threat to the stability of the region and the world,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during his appearance at Reichman University. “It is prosecuting a war of attrition against Israel. It wants to open a new Hezbollah front on the Golan Heights as it has done in south Lebanon.”
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The defense minister affirmed that Assad’s restoration to the Arab League “will not give Iranian proxies any immunity” from Israeli strikes, in keeping with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-standing effort to prevent Iran from securing a “land bridge” from Iran across Iraq and Syria to Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea.
“Let them not be mistaken: We’re ready to use force, and we will do whatever is possible and necessary to bring calm,” Haliva said.
