Hezbollah has responded to an op-ed published by IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis on Lebanese opposition websites, calling it “provocative words published by a coward.”
“The article is nonsense and a provocation that is published by someone who is a coward,” wrote the Head of Hezbollah’s “Loyalty to Resistance” parliamentary bloc, Hajj Mohammad Raad, in an article published on the Ahewar website.
“Israel should not act foolishly and complicate itself in a war that will be destructive for it. Hezbollah is stronger today and has capabilities that can destroy the Israeli army. Israel today has become a regional and international isolationist, and the media spins that come out of it are meant to cover up its distress, because it wants to present itself as strong,” he continued.
On Sunday, an article published by Manelis was published by several Arab-language media outlets, including on the Hezbollah friendly al-Masdar website and the Voice Beirut radio station.
“The authority of the Zionist entity, whatever it tries, will not be able to persuade the Arab-Muslim peoples to give up the idea of resisting the Zionist occupation,” Raad wrote Monday. “The day will come when Hezbollah’s flag will be raised over the honorable city of Jerusalem and the Palestinians will regain their occupied land.”
Manelis urged Lebanese citizens to open their eyes to the fact that their fate was “in the hands of a dictator sitting in Tehran,” which, alongside its proxy Hezbollah, has turned Lebanon into one large missile factory.
“The ordinary citizen will be mistaken to think that this process turns Lebanon into a fortress, it is nothing more than a barrel of gunpowder on which he, his family and his property are sitting,” Manelis said in his op-ed on Sunday.
“In Lebanon, Hezbollah does not conceal its attempt to take control of the state,” he continued, adding that “in the shadow of Nasrallah’s bullying behavior” the terror group has built “terror infrastructure and factories to manufacture weapons under the nose of the Lebanese government.”
Israeli officials have repeatedly voiced concerns over the smuggling of sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah and the growing Iranian presence on its borders, stressing that both are red-lines for the Jewish State.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he will discuss Iran’s efforts in Lebanon with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their upcoming meeting in the Kremlin, telling reporters before taking off to Moscow that this is something that Israel will not tolerate.
Netanyahu said that he will also speak with the Russian president about Iran’s ”unending efforts to militarily entrench itself in Syria, something that we are adamantly opposed to and act against.”
He will be accompanied by Military Intelligence Directorate (MID) chief Maj. Gen. Hezi Levy, as well as Minister Ze’ev Elkin, National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat and the Military Secretary to the Prime Minister, Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano.
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