News
Hezbollah leader Nasrallah: ‘Cancerous’ Israel should be wiped out
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah yesterday urged Arab states to resist relations with Israel, which he termed a “cancerous tumour” which should be “wiped out.”
Nasrallah was addressing a conference titled “United for Palestine — Israel to be Destroyed.” He claimed that “the Israelis are seeking to benefit from what is going on in this region by moving towards a phase of normalization with [Arab] countries.” According to Iranian Press TV, Nasrallah said “We should activate and boost all forms of the resistance against the Israeli normalisation” and that, “Right now, there are some Arab countries that have taken Israel out of the circle of threats … This is something very dangerous.”
Israel alongside the likes of Saudi Arabia and Gulf states have expressed common concern on issues such as Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Emphasising that it would be dangerous if Arab states began to regard Israel as its friend or ally, Nasrallah concluded by saying, “Israel, the cancerous tumour, will be wiped out and Jerusalem will return to its owners.”
Hezbollah controls much of southern Lebanon and although Israel’s border with Lebanon has been largely quiet since the month-long 2006 Second Lebanon War, Israeli officials have estimated that Hezbollah has approximately 100,000 rockets at its disposal, ten times the arsenal which Hamas controlled before Operation Protective Edge last summer.
Hezbollah is heavily backed by Iran and continues to play a crucial role fighting alongside President Assad’s forces in Syria, helping prop up his regime. The Shia Islamist group has also planned and launched attacks on Israeli citizens across the world, most recently a bus bomb in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas which killed five Israeli tourists in 2012. Since then, Cypriot authorities have apprehended and sentenced two Hezbollah operatives planning attacks against Israelis on the island.
During a visit yesterday to Cyprus, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, “Iran and Hezbollah organize a terrorist network that covers over 30 countries on five continents, including Europe, just about every country in Europe.”