HEZBOLLAH chief Hassan Nasrallah has vowed "open war" amid Israeli attacks that have raised international fears of a devastating regional conflict.
Israeli and Lebanese residents were braced today for increased hostilities after the declaration.
====
The UN has failed in its duty to support fundamental basic rights of Israelis targeted by terrorists.
UN is compromised in its dealings with governments comprised of terrorist affiliated individuals.
1 comment:
A defiant Nasrallah emerged unscathed after air strikes on his home and office in Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut yesterday that were followed by an unprecedented Hezbollah attack on an Israeli warship.
"You wanted an open war, you will get an open war," the Shi'ite militant leader said in an audio message after the evening raid.
"It will be war at all levels... to Haifa, and beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said, referring to Israel's third largest city which came under unprecedented rocket fire from Lebanon on Thursday.
The action against Nasrallah came as the UN Security Council was holding an emergency meeting on the conflict that has left Lebanon virtually cut off from the outside world after Israel imposed an air and sea blockade, attacked the only international airport and bombed the main highway to neighbouring Syria.
Meanwhile, Arab countries bordering the region fear an escalation of the violence. Syria is reportedly bracing itself for "any eventuality" as the regime nervously eyes a relentless Israeli operation over the border.
"Syria is in confrontation with Israel. It is watching the situation and is ready to defend itself against any eventuality," said Elias Murad, editor of the ruling Baath party newspaper Al-Baath.
Hezbollah forces claimed a rare victory overnight, with an explosives-laden drone hitting an Israeli warship. The Israeli military said only that the ship had been 'lightly hit'.
Israel had earlier issued a direct threat against the Hezbollah chief after blaming the group's main backers, Iran and Syria, over the crisis unleashed after Nasrallah's militants captured two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed an attack on the "Hezbollah terror organisation headquarters in southern Beirut" but would not elaborate on whether it was an assassination attempt.
"Nasrallah decided his own fate," Interior Minister Roni Bar-On said earlier. "We will settle our accounts with him when the time comes."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had earlier given the green light to further raids in Lebanon, following a blitz of Hezbollah rocket attacks across the border that left another two people dead.
The international community has issued urgent appeals for calm and is sending envoys in a bid to avoid another full-scale Middle East war, with Israel under fire in some quarters for using "disproportionate force".
Israel, apparently taken aback by the extent of the criticism, said Mr Olmert has set three conditions for a ceasefire called for by Lebanon: the release of soldiers, a halt to rocket fire and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
"If these conditions are met, we are ready to cooperate with a delegation from the United Nations," a spokeswoman said.
In a wave of strikes today, Israeli jets hit the main highway linking Beirut and Damascus and an airport hangar and fuel tanks, pounded Hezbollah's command headquarters in Beirut and a Palestinian guerrilla base in eastern Lebanon, as well as bridges and other roads.
Latest reports suggest that nine people were killed by the bombardment today in Beirut, bringing to 88 the death toll in Lebanon since Israel unleashed what the military has called "Operation Just Reward".
In one of the strongest statements from a world leader on the conflict, President Jacques Chirac of France, the former colonial power in Lebanon, said Israel appeared to "wish to destroy" Lebanon.
Lebanon said US President George W Bush had called Prime Minister Fuad Siniora to voice support for his government and pledged to "exert pressure on Israel to limit damage inflicted on Lebanon".
Prime Minister Siniora, interviewed on CNN, accused Israel of destroying his country. "It's sparing nobody, in no area of Lebanon. Actually it is cutting the country into pieces, whereby more than 20 bridges in the country have been destroyed," said Mr Siniora overnight.
World powers are due to discuss the crisis at the Group of Eight meeting starting tomorrow in Moscow after the deadliest violence between Israel and Lebanon in a decade opened up a dangerous new front in the Middle East conflict following the massive Israeli onslaught against Gaza.
The latest crisis was triggered when Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli servicemen in a deadly attack on the volatile Lebanon-Israel border on Wednesday, leading to Israel's first ground incursion since it withdrew in 2000.
The abduction came less than three weeks after a similar raid by Palestinian militants, including members of the ruling Islamist movement Hamas, on the Gaza border that resulted in the capture of an Israeli corporal.
Washington - which regards Hezbollah as a terror group - said Israel, its closest Middle East ally, had the right to defend itself but urged restraint, while several European powers openly criticised the scale of the Israeli offensive as disproportionate.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud called on Arab League ministers, due to meet tomorrow, to help avoid Israel's "systematic destruction" of the country.
UN chief Kofi Annan has said he was "profoundly worried" by the conflict, while the Vatican said it "deplores the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation".
Israel resumed its Gaza air assault overnight in a bid to retrieve an abducted soldier and stop rocket attacks, although the pullback of some ground troops was seen by Palestinians as the sign of a lull.
Amid the continued offensive, Palestinian militants blew a hole in a wall on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, allowing 2000 people who had been stranded owing to closures related to the assault to cross into the territory.
In northern Israel, where the army ordered about half a million Israelis in northern towns into bomb shelters, scores of rockets were fired on more than a dozen towns today.
Another two people were killed, bringing the toll over two days to four dead. Two rockets fired from south Lebanon also penetrated deeper than ever inside Israel yesterday, hitting its third largest city of Haifa.
Israel has pointed the finger of blame at Syria and Iran, saying its two arch-foes form an "axis of terror" along with Hezbollah and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Mr Bush also said yesterday that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, who was forced to end 29 years of military domination in Lebanon last year, should be held to account over the escalation of violence.
With Lebanon's airport shut and Israel blockading its ports, thousands of tourists, mostly Gulf Arab nationals, fled across the border to Syria and a number of foreign governments issued travel warnings.
Lebanon has been mired in its own political crisis since the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005 and is still rebuilding after the devastating 1975-1990 civil war.
The Lebanese government - which includes two Hezbollah ministers but is led by anti-Syrian politicians - denied any involvement in the Hezbollah action and demanded a "complete and immediate ceasefire".
Post a Comment