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Iran 'could order Hezbollah hit on Israel'
Lebanon's Hezbollah may not want a new war with Israel but an order to attack would come from Tehran in the event of a strike on Iran, a senior military official in Israel's northern command told AFP.And if the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad collapses, the resulting unrest could see Al-Qaeda type groups create chaos on the Syrian Golan Heights, he said in an interview conducted on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Any military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would likely spark a deadly response from its ally Hezbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Friday that its missiles could strike anywhere inside the Jewish state. But senior military officials do not believe Nasrallah wants another war with Israel and would only attack as a direct result of orders from Tehran. "The biggest spending of Iran in 30 years has been on the nuclear programme, and Hezbollah is the second," the Israeli official told AFP, adding that Tehran's aim was to create "Iranian footprints near the border with Israel." "If something would happen in Iran, it's a tool that they can use in all kinds of scenarios," he said. "They (Iran) have so many high-ranking officials in Lebanon. I don't think this is a decision of Nasrallah -- he will get orders. That's why he was created," said the official. "If you ask Nasrallah today, he would say 'no' (to a new war with Israel) but I don't think that's his call," he said. "Nasrallah understood the power of Israel and he is still licking his wounds." He said other scenarios which could spark a new conflict between Israel and Hezbollah include an attack on Israelis abroad or the transfer to Hezbollah of chemical weapons from Syria, which is in the throes of a brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests. Posted by: tipper 2012-05-14 |
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