Ibrahim Mousaoui and Christiane Amanpour during the interview. (Screenshot)
Rare enough to be noted, a Hezbollah MP, Ibrahim Moussawi, appeared on the CNN set on Wednesday in an interview conducted by one of the channel's leading figures, Christiane Amanpour.
Last April, the deputy leader of the party, Naim Qassem, was interviewed by the American channel NBC. The fact that Hezbollah, which launched a "support front" in Gaza on Oct. 8, gave two interviews to American channels in a few months gives an insight into the size that the party has taken and its desire to send messages to the United States, despite the fact that American power is often the target of Hezbollah's verbal escalation.
Asked about the risks of all-out war as the escalation continues on the Lebanese-Israeli border, Moussawi dismissed the possibility that neither Hezbollah nor the Israelis want, much less the regional powers.
"I would say that [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu is tempted by the expansion of the war to push the United States to engage directly in the conflict. But it is not in anyone's interest to venture into such territory," he said. Asked to interpret the words of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who warned against the expansion of the war which, according to him, would then be "without restraint, without rules or limits," the MP replied that this is indeed a threat. "It will be a reaction to hostility. This is also why since the beginning of the conflict, we have made the Israelis pay a heavy price precisely to dissuade them from taking the risk of declaring a global war."
The parliamentarian also took the opportunity to point out that Hezbollah is not in favor of war.
"We hate war. We know that it will lead to deaths and enormous destruction. At the same time, we have seen the genocide that took place in Gaza," he said.
Asked whether Hezbollah is Lebanese or Iranian, he replied, “We are Lebanese and proud of it. We are not Iranian and do not work on behalf of Iran. We are part of an axis of resistance against the (Israeli) occupier who targets us as Arabs, Christians and Muslims ... France, Britain, Germany and the United States support Israel, which is an occupying force. Therefore, the peoples of the region have the right to form a front to face this challenge which is a real force of colonization.”
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.