Safieddine says Hezbollah doesn't want bigger war with Israel

The head of Hezbollah’s executive council, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, on Monday hinted that his powerful Iran-backed group does not want to expand the current border confrontations with Israel.

“Some ask whether there will be a broad war or not, coming to us with threats, advices, analyses and interpretations. These questions have persisted until now, a delegation comes and a delegation goes, but when throughout the past decades have we launched a broad war against the (Israeli) entity, though this entity deserves it,” Safieddine asked.

“Wars have always been launched by the Israeli enemy and its bizarre that some Lebanese who are supposed to be smart … are acting foolishly and want to hold us responsible for the issue of expanding the war, regardless of the nature of our participation,” the Hezbollah official added.

“The question should be what does America want and what does Israel want. They are the ones who take the decisions of a broad war on Lebanon and on our region,” Safieddine said.

He also noted that any sign of weakness in the face of Israel would “tempt it and increase its desire to wage a broad war.”

“When you tells the Americans and Israelis that we do not fear their threats, that we are strong on the frontier and that we are prepared to confront them and do not care for their threats, only then they will be frightened. This is what prevents, fends off and deters and nothing else is of any use,” Safieddine added.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, raising fears of a broader conflagration.

More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.