Nasrallah ready for war with Israel, says "no discussion"
Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said today he was ready for a full confrontation with Israel adding that no military operation will succeed in setting the kidnapped soldiers free.
"If Israel wants escalation, we are ready for full confrontation. I advise the new Israeli political and military leadership to ask the former leaders about Lebanon," Nasrallah said in a press conference in Beirut's southern suburb.
Nasrallah thanked all Lebanese, Palestinians and Arabs for expressing their happiness and support. He singled out "his" people in southern Lebanon, who are steadfast and strong. He denied reports of people fleeing the area.
He said this is no time for discussing Hizbullah's actions. He warned Lebanese politicians not to "commit mistakes" that could help "the enemy."
Nasrallah who looked content and grinned repeatedly during the speech denied any links between Israel's Gaza's operation in Gaza and Hizbullah's kidnapping of soldiers. He said, however, that this operation was in "support of our brothers in Palestine who are getting butchered under the watchful eyes of the immoral world."
He listed his conditions for returning the soldiers.
"These prisoners will only return through indirect negotiations and the exchange of prisoners. Any Israeli military operation will not succeed in these soldiers returning to Israel," adding that no international pressure will work.
"This is our natural right, and this is the only logical road. No international community or organization or governments or negotiations can lead to the release of our prisoners in Israel. Whoever has a different road, please show us. But where have you been in the past 20 years?"
Nasrallah hoped this operation will "send a message about the plight of 1000s of Lebanese, Arab and Palestinian prisoners.
He reiterated several times that he will not accept any discussions on this "natural right" to kidnap Israeli soldiers. He said he couldn't wait for a national consensus on Hizbullah's arms and that there was no coordination on this matter with the Lebanese government.
Recovered Comments:
But where have you been in the past 20 years?"
where was the government 20 years ago to prevent theses problems
that s the right question
As to "getting butchered", let's not forget that in the roughly two weeks of Israel's incursion into the Gaza strip, by far fewer (Palestinian) Arabs have been killed by the "Zionist enemy" than were killed by intra-Arab bloodletting in Iraq in the past few days.
And it is probably beyond reasonable to ask whether Hasan Nasrallah's horizon extends as far as Bombay / Mumbai.