BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel’s offshore energy projects Friday as he insisted his armed movement is Lebanon’s “only” source of leverage in an escalating oil and gas dispute.
“The only force you have, oh Lebanese, is the resistance,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech, referring to his powerful faction.
“If Israel threatens you, you can threaten it. If the Americans come tell you that you have to deal with them to hold Israel back, then tell the Americans: respond to our demands so we hold Hezbollah back from Israel,” he said.
Lebanon last week signed its first contract to drill for oil and gas in a pair of offshore zones, including one that its southern neighbor Israel says belongs to it.
The United States has sought to mediate the disagreement, with Acting Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield meeting with top officials in Lebanon since February 6.
On Friday, Nasrallah said the US was not an “honest mediator.”
“They came to inform, dictate, and threaten,” he said.
Nasrallah’s comments come a day after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Beirut and blasted Hezbollah’s “destabilising” role in the region.
Tillerson said the US was “committed to helping Lebanon and the Lebanese people prosper through the development of their natural resources in agreement with all of their neighbors.”
A consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI, and Novatek has pledged to begin drilling off of Lebanon’s coast by 2019.
Total has said that the dispute between Lebanon and Israel over “block nine” only covers eight percent of its surface area.
But Lebanese officials have said the whole zone belongs to Beirut, and Israeli Defense Minizer Avigdor Lieberman has insisted it is solidly in Israeli territory.
“The whole region has now openly entered into an oil and gas war, and our issue is not separate,” Nasrallah said on Friday.
“This is Lebanon’s wealth and hope... We are strong, and we must negotiate as such,” he said, stressing that any discoveries could usher in a “promising and different” future for Lebanese.
“If Lebanon’s Council of Defense takes a decision that oil platforms in Palestine should stop working, then in just a few hours, I promise you, they will stop working,” he threatened.
Hezbollah clashed with Israel in a month-long war in 2006 and is currently fighting alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces in neighboring Syria.
Syria’s protracted conflict has drawn in other world powers, including the United States, which has deployed boots on the ground as part of an international coalition fighting jihadists.
But Nasrallah criticized the US-led alliance on Friday, saying it was stationed in Syria to poach its oil wealth.
“They are staying at the Al-Tanf base east of the Euphrates River — why? Because the most important oil wells and gas (resources) in Syria are east of the Euphrates,” he said.
And US President Donald “Trump’s administation has oil in their eyes when they look” at neighboring Iraq, Nasrallah added.
Hezbollah says it is Lebanon’s ‘only’ tool in Israel gas dispute
Hezbollah says it is Lebanon’s ‘only’ tool in Israel gas dispute
Ceasefire with Kurdish-led force extended for another 15 days, Syrian army says
- The defense ministry said the extension was in support of an operation by US forces to transfer accused Daesh militants to Iraq
- The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces confirmed the ceasefire extension
RAQQA, Syria: Hours after the expiration of a four-day truce between the Syrian government and Kurdish-led fighters Saturday, Syria’s defense ministry announced the ceasefire had been extended by another 15 days.
The defense ministry said in a statement that the extension was in support of an operation by US forces to transfer accused Daesh militants who had been held in prisons in northeastern Syria to detention centers in Iraq.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces confirmed the ceasefire extension.
“Our forces affirm their commitment to the agreement and their dedication to respecting it, which contributes to de-escalation, the protection of civilians, and the creation of the necessary conditions for stability,” the group said in a statement.
Over the past three weeks, there have been intense clashes between government forces and the SDF, in which the SDF lost large parts of the area they once controlled.
Earlier in the day, the Kurdish-led force called on the international community to prevent any escalation.
The end of the truce came as government forces have been sending reinforcements to Syria’s northeast.
Syria’s interim government signed an agreement last March with the SDF for it to hand over territory and to eventually merge its fighters with government forces. In early January, a new round of talks failed to make progress over the merger, leading to renewed fighting between the two sides.
A new version of the accord was signed last weekend, and a four-day ceasefire was declared Tuesday. Part of the new deal is that SDF members will have to merge into the army and police forces as individuals.
The SDF said in a statement Saturday that military buildups and logistical movements by government forces have been observed, “clearly indicating an intent to escalate and push the region toward a new confrontation.” The SDF said it will continue to abide by the truce.
On Saturday, state TV said authorities on Saturday released 126 boys under the age of 18 who were held at the Al-Aqtan prison near the northern city of Raqqa that was taken by government forces Friday. The teenagers were taken to the city of Raqqa where they were handed over to their families, the TV station said.
The prison is also home to some of the 9,000 members of the Daesh group who are held in northeastern Syria. Most of them remain held in jails run by the SDF. Government forces have so far taken control of two prisons while the rest are still run by the SDF.
Earlier this week, the US military said that some 7,000 Daesh detainees will be transferred to detention centers in neighboring Iraq.
On Wednesday, the US military said that 150 prisoners have been taken to Iraq.
