“If you don’t give us the rights that our state is asking for … then we will bring up and down for everyone,” Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, said in a televised speech.
The leader of pro-Iranian Hezbollah warned today that it will not allow “anyone” to operate in offshore oil and gas fields if Lebanon is barred from mining “rights” it has in areas off its coast.
“If you don’t give us the rights that our state is asking for … then we will bring up and down for everyone,” Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, said in a televised speech.
“If you wish to come up with a formula in which this country is prohibited from benefiting (from these deposits), then no one will be allowed to extract gas or oil and no one will be able to sell gas or oil,” he argued.
Lebanon is in negotiations with Israel, brokered by the US, to draw maritime borders that could determine the resources belonging to each country.
Israel has already started drilling in the Karis field with a vessel owned by London-based Energean.
On July 2 Israeli forces intercepted three drones sent by Hezbollah, which were not armed.
According to Nasrallah, this was a first “attack” aimed at making it clear to the ship’s crew that this was “not a safe area”. He indirectly but clearly threatened further attacks, saying his organization could deploy a “large number” of armed drones at once, underscoring that it has the ability to launch military strikes from land, air and sea.
“In Karis and beyond Karis,” Hassan Nasrallah said, recalling the message he had sent in 2006 before a conflict with Israel that lasted about a month, when he had said “in Haifa and beyond Haifa.” Hezbollah had then launched rocket attacks on Haifa. Today marks 16 years since the start of that conflict.
Nasrallah insisted that Lebanon has a “golden opportunity” in the next two months to secure its maritime rights before Israel completes its Karis drilling.
He urged Lebanese officials to use his organization as leverage. “The resistance is saying to you: Take advantage of me… Tell the American people that these guys are not accountable to anyone, they are out of control – say what you want. But say it!” the Hezbollah leader emphasized.
RES-EMP
View the news feed and get the latest news.
