Nasrallah says Israel has no excuse to attack Lebanon

Feb 16, 2010, 19:00 GMT

Beirut - Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday Israel does not have any excuse to attack Lebanon, but warned that his movement would retaliate to an attack by hitting deep inside the Jewish state.

'It is untrue that we are giving Israel an excuse to launch an aggression on Lebanon. Israel does not need an excuse, and if it needs an excuse it creates one,' Nasrallah told thousands of his followers at a ceremony to mark the death of Hezbollah's military leader Imad Mughaniyeh.

Mughaniyeh was killed in a car bomb blast on February 12, 2008 in Damascus. Hezbollah has accused Israel in the killing, something which Israel denies.

'If Israel strikes Dahiyeh, we will strike Tel Aviv,' he warned, referring to Beirut's southern suburbs where Hezbollah is most active.

'They think that they can demolish Dahiyeh's buildings as we barely 'puncture their walls.' But I tell them today: You destroy a Dahiyeh building and we will destroy buildings in Tel Aviv,' Nasrallah said as his followers chanted 'God bless Nasrallah.'

He stressed that he is accepting the Israeli challenges and threats and said:' If you (Israel) target Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, we will strike Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport.

'If you target our electricity stations, we will target yours. If you target our plants, we will target yours,' Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah described the recent Israeli threats against Lebanon and Syria as 'psychological warfare' to frighten the Lebanese people and government and to thwart the resistance from boosting its strength.

'We do not want war, but we are concerned with defending our people's dignity,' he said.

Nasrallah assured his followers that Israel cannot wage a new war against Lebanon.

'Israel has been living in [a state of] crisis on the strategic level since the July 2006 and Gaza wars. It can neither impose peace based on its conditions nor wage war,' he said.

Israel launched a 33-day war against Lebanon in july 2006, after Hezbollah militants snatched two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack in southern Lebanon. Most of Lebanon's infrastructure was destroyed and some 1,200 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, were killed.