Dario Sabaghi
The New Arab, Nov. 6, 2023
“… there is no point for Hezbollah in anticipating and declaring war on Israel when the Palestinian groups are still very prepared for the Israeli invasion. The point is to wait for the result of the Israeli attack and how the Palestinians are going to behave.”
The first speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last Friday since the start of the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel could be condensed into one phrase: “All options are on the table”.
But among the key takeaways of his speech, which lasted about one hour and twenty minutes, were useful indicators of Hezbollah’s strategy regarding its actions on the Israeli-Lebanese border and response to Israel’s ground invasion.
Nasrallah claimed that Hezbollah wasn’t involved in Hamas’ Operation al-Aqsa Flood but clarified that operations along the Israeli-Lebanese border are an expression of solidarity with Gaza, signalling that there won’t be an immediate full-scale involvement in the conflict.
Rather, Hezbollah’s operations are contingent on events in Gaza and the group will continually assess the level of escalation it will pursue on the Lebanese border against Israel.
“It was a careful and cautious articulated speech, but at the same time very powerful,” Imad Salamey, associate professor of Middle Eastern political affairs at the Lebanese American University, told The New Arab.
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