Russia's top diplomat says Hezbollah, Iran and Lebanon don't want war with Israel

Russia’s top diplomat has said that Hezbollah, its main backer Iran, and Lebanon’s government do not want “a full-blown war – and there’s a suspicion that some circles in Israel are trying to achieve just that.”

Sergey Lavrov told a U.N. news conference Wednesday that Russia is doing “everything possible to calm tensions.” He expressed hope that Western nations make every effort to ensure Israel won’t act on what he says U.S. and European analysts are calling Israel’s “provocative mindsets.”

Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire almost every day since the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza last October. The U.S. and the international community have been lobbying for calm, and are hopeful a diplomatic solution will prevent the fighting from spiraling into a wider Middle East war.

Should war break out, Israel would face a much more formidable foe in Lebanon than in Gaza. Hezbollah is the Arab world’s most significant paramilitary force with a robust internal structure as well as a sizeable arsenal. Israel sees the group as its most direct threat.

Lavrov said Iran’s previous government and new president “reflect a very responsible position that Iran is not interested in escalation.”

Without offering names, Lavrov said U.S. and European analysts say “escalation, as the practical developments show, is something which Israel is interested in.”

“Hezbollah has been very much restrained in its actions,” Lavrov asserted, and its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah “delivered a number of public statements which reaffirmed that position.”

“However, the sentiment is that there’s an attempt to provoke them, and to provoke them into a full-blown engagement,” he said.

Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed over 450 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also more than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began.