Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem (SS taken from Qassem's interview with NBC News on Apr. 18)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem told American news broadcaster NBC on Thursday that Hezbollah is determined to keep its military operation at the Lebanese-Israeli border limited to a certain extent and not to be dragged into a full-scale war.
"We will not wage a full-scale war unless the Israelis decide to get into war against us," Qassem said.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in daily skirmishes along the Lebanese-Israeli border since Oct. 8, a day after the start of the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.
Qassem said that Hezbollah "will not accept that the Israelis transgress the rules of engagement that are currently set" in southern Lebanon.
In the past few months, Israel has been carrying out deeper attacks into Lebanese territory and has been assassinating Hezbollah and Hamas officials in areas that are relatively far from the border.
"If the Israelis increase their attacks, we will increase our attacks as well," Qassem told NBC News.
He added that Hezbollah's daily attacks serve to "lure Israeli forces to get busy in the North" instead of solely focusing on the southern Gaza enclave.
"We didn’t expect the war would last this long because we didn’t think that Netanyahu was that foolish, same for Biden and the other countries," Qassem said.
Iran's attack on Israel
Qassem also reacted to Iran's attack on Israel last week in response to an Israeli strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus.
"Tehran speaks publicly and clearly. They do not want war and they have responded to the attack on their embassy and that’s it for them" Qassem said. "I think Iran is honest. This is what they told us and this is what they keep reiterating to the media."
During Iran's attack, Jordan’s air force intercepted and downed Iranian drones heading toward Israel while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) played a pivotal role in neutralizing this attack.
"It wasn’t adequate for any Arab nation to support Israel no matter what justifications they had," Qassem said. "Their populations will hold them accountable for all those who took this decision."
Qassem is expected to deliver a speech at 5 p.m. on Friday.