The leader of the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah threatened Friday to exact revenge on the U.S. for supporting Israel in its campaign to root out Hamas.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech: “Let me be clear, the United States is just as responsible…Americans have to pay, they have to pay for Israel’s slaughter.”
A few days after Hamas invaded Israel, perpetrating the most brutal massacre against Jews since the Holocaust, Hezbollah terrorists clashed with Israel Defense Forces along the Lebanon border, opening a second front in the conflict.
If Israel’s military attacks Lebanon, where Hezbollah is operating, it will “pay dearly,” Nasrallah vowed.
Nasrallah applauded the hostile forces in the growing Middle Eastern coalition involved in the fight against Israel, which he described as a righteous “holy war.”
“We must salute the … strong and brave Iraqi and Yemeni hands who are now involved in this holy war,” he added.
The U.S. has so far deployed two aircraft carriers to the region, as well as military resources and aid, to deter Israel’s enemies from expanding the conflict. Since the early aftermath of the Hamas attacks, the U.S. military has also flown unarmed MQ-9 Reaper drones over Gaza to help Israel apprehend and rescue hostages being held by Hamas.
“Your Navy ships in the Mediterranean don’t scare us and they never did,” Nasrallah said Friday in a rebuke to the U.S.
“To the Americans, I say to you, remember your defeats in Lebanon, Iraq, in Afghanistan and remember how you humiliatingly withdrew from Afghanistan,” he said. “Today, Americans, I say to you, that those who defeated you in Lebanon at the beginning of the 80s, they are still alive and together with them we have today their children and their grandchildren.”
“Those who want a prevent a regional war, they must quickly proceed to put an end to the aggression on Gaza,” Nasrallah added. “And you, the Americans, you know very well that if war were to erupt in the region that your Navy ships, your Air Force, will be to no available and your interests, your troops your Navy ships, they will pay the price first and foremost, they will be the biggest loser.”
Nasrallah suggested, however, that Hezbollah should not be the group to provoke a broader war in the Middle East.
“For those who say that Hezbollah should start a war in the entire region, I say wait. These are the beginnings,” he said. “More actions will be taken against Israel from several different fronts and this issue will become more obvious in the next few days.”