White House and Netanyahu warn Nasrallah after speech
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said that Hezbollah "should not try to take advantage of the ongoing conflict," shortly after Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a much-hyped speech in which he addressed threats to both Israel and the United States over the ongoing war in Gaza and the skirmishes in south Lebanon.
"This has the potential of becoming a bloodier war between Israel and Lebanon than 2006," Jean-Pierre warned.
"The United States does not want to see this conflict expand into Lebanon," she added.
In his first speech since war broke out last month between Hamas militants and Israel, Nasrallah said the United States was "entirely responsible" for the ongoing Gaza conflict, and could stave off a regional conflagration by preventing its ally Israel's attacks.
Jean-Pierre said: "We will not engage in a war of words."
"The likely devastation for Lebanon and its people would be unimaginable and is avoidable," she added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile warned Hezbollah it would "pay an unimaginable price" for any misstep.
The 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, largely soldiers.
Since October 8, cross-border Hezbollah-Israel skirmishes have killed 72 people on the Lebanese side, among them at least 54 Hezbollah fighters but also other combatants and civilians, including a Reuters journalist, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, at least six soldiers and one civilian have been killed, the army said.
Maha Yahya of the Carnegie Middle East Center, said Nasrallah's speech was "the best middle ground that he could take."
Ultimately "neither Iran nor Hezbollah are interested in getting into a conflict which would probably end up being a zero sum game," she said.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/301358 |