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Israeli Leaders Warn Hezbollah Not to Push Israel, Point to Gaza as Example: ‘This Is What Will Happen Here’
Israeli soldiers stand by, as a mobile artillery unit fires on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu
Israel’s top leaders have sent a clear warning to Hezbollah: Stop attacking Israel with rockets and other weapons, or the Jewish state will target the Iran-backed terror group in Lebanon just as it’s decimating the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah not to escalate the current conflict during a visit to the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon.
“Hezbollah got us wrong in a major way in 2006, and is getting us seriously wrong even now,” he told a group of Israeli soldiers, referring to the 34-day conflict known as the Second Lebanon War fought between Israel and the powerful Islamist group.
“Hezbollah made a big mistake with us in 2006 and it is making one now,” Netanyahu added. “It thought that we were like a spiderweb.”
Before the 2006 war, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah referred to Israeli society as a spiderweb, characterizing the Jewish state as weak. He reused that same metaphor in a November speech, saying, “Israel has revealed itself to be a weak state, as fragile as a spiderweb, and it needs American and Western support.”
Netanyahu said that Hezbollah knows such a characterization is false, adding, “It sees here tremendous power, the unity of a people, a determination to do whatever is necessary to restore security to the north, and I tell you — this is my policy.”
Hezbollah operates with impunity in Lebanon, where it wields significant political and military clout, and rules over large swathes of the southern part of the country.
The terror group and Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire since the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in early October, forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the north to evacuate their homes. Fighting at the Lebanese border has intensified in recent weeks, leading to concerns that the conflict in Gaza — the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas, another Iran-backed Islamist terror group, to Israel’s south — could escalate into a regional conflict.
“We will do everything to restore security to the north and allow your families — because many of you are from here — to return home in safety and to know that we are not to be trifled with,” Netanyahu told the soldiers on Monday. “We will do whatever is necessary.”
“Of course, we prefer that this be done without a widespread campaign,” the prime minister continued, expressing Israel’s wish to avoid conflict. “But that will not stop us.”
Netanyahu then warned Hezbollah that, should fighting continue to escalate, Israel is prepared to take its ongoing military campaign of air strikes and ground operations against Hamas in Gaza and use it against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We gave them an example of what is happening to their friends in the south; this is what will happen here in the north,” he said. “We will do everything to restore security.”
Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, massacred 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 240 hostages. The Israeli government has pledged to bring all hostages home and destroy Hamas to the point that the terror group no longer poses a threat. At least 8,000 terrorists have been killed so far including key leaders, according to the Israeli military, which has destroyed much of the group’s infrastructure.
Netanyahu’s comments echoed remarks made by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday.
Gallant explained that Israel isn’t afraid to go to war with Hezbollah in Lebanon if pushed to the brink.
While Israel doesn’t seek such a war, the defense chief clarified, “80,000 people need to be able to go back to their homes safely,” he said, referring to Israelis who were forced to evacuate their homes near the northern border. But if all else fails, “we are willing to sacrifice.”
Gallant then warned Hezbollah, like Netanyahu, that Israel could target its fighters in Lebanon just as it’s currently doing to Hamas in Gaza.
“They [Hezbollah] see what is happening in Gaza,” Gallant said. “They know we can copy-paste to Beirut [the Lebanese capital].”
Elaborating on the dangers that Israel is facing, the defense minister said the source of both areas of conflict — Hamas to the south and Hezbollah to the north — is the same: Iran.
“My basic view: We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy,” Gallant said. “Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it.”
Iran has provided arms, funds, and training to both Hamas and Hezbollah. All three have the stated aim of seeking Israel’s destruction.
The post Israeli Leaders Warn Hezbollah Not to Push Israel, Point to Gaza as Example: ‘This Is What Will Happen Here’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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