Okaz

ALL of a sudden Hassan Nasrallah appeared on Al-Manar TV, which is owned by Hezbollah, wearing his overcoat and, in a shaking voice, he called for help from Saudi Arabia, specifically from King Abdullah, saying, “Had I known about the repercussions of what happened, we would not have carried out the operation.”

Before that Nasrallah appeared bragging about his daring operation of July 2006, in which they breached the Lebanese-Israeli border, kidnapped soldiers and killed some of them, while the remains of one of the were held for ransom.

Is Nasrallah going to appear on the Hezbollah TV again calling for help to find an escape route?

After a week of heavy air strikes by Israeli warplanes on every civilian and military target from Beirut to the country’s southern border and Israeli tanks crossed the Litani river, Nasrallah finally woke up and was forced to come out of his hiding place.

Nasrallah was implicated in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was a Saudi Arabian ally.

For years, his party and the media were standing against Saudi Arabia making harsh allegations. He knew that Saudi Arabia is able to establish a pressure lobby in the West and apply pressure to stop the Israeli aggression. This was what Saudi Arabia did despite what he and his party did and have been still doing against Saudi Arabia. Did Hezbollah and his allies stop their war against Saudi Arabia after this? Did Saudi Arabia abandon its principles?

Of course, Saudi Arabia remains the way it used to be and Hezbollah continued its political aggression without change.

The most important question is why Hezbollah carried out that operation without calculating the consequences? Who is going to benefit from what Hezbollah is doing now by dragging the region into a war through the tunnel operation?

Weeks before the July 2006 war, the international community was determined to put an end to the outlaw regime in Tehran, as it was described by former US President George W. Bush. The world was convinced that this regime cannot be reformed and its existence means destruction of humanity.

The international community did not target Lebanon or Hezbollah despite the fact that the militia had facilitated the assassination of Rafik Hariri. The international community decided to hold individuals responsible for the assassination without harming Lebanon.

If the expected Israeli strike on Hezbollah happened it would not be a walk in the park. It will be horrific and this time Hezbollah will not escape punishment.

Hezbollah is working with an arrogant mentality and overconfidence. They think they can surprise the Israelis with another July 2006 war for the benefit of Iran, through building tunnels into the Israeli territory. Indications by the Israeli army show they knew from day one about the plot by Hezbollah to build a tunnel from the moment members of the group bought a house on the opposite side of their border.

The Israeli army deliberately distorted the capability of Hezbollah, information-, financial- and logistics-wise. The close monitoring of the extent of the digging operation gave the Israeli intelligence all facts about the Hezbollah’s capabilities, its chain of command and how they operate in secret.

The digging operation is carried out only by Hezbollah’s elite troops, who the leaders can trust to keep the secret. The Israelis were prepared and they have delayed the announcement of the precious discovery so that the Israeli government can reap internal and international rewards.

Israelis work according to their own timescale, not on the timescale of Tehran or South Beirut. Hassan Nasrallah’s cool reaction will not prevent the expected strike, which is now being prepared by pulling out American forces from Syria and bringing Damascus back to the Arab fold, away from the clutches of the Iranians.

The expected war will be directed at weapons factories and rocket storages first. It will then target the command center, which was bolstered by Barack Obama indirectly with hundreds of millions of dollars after the nuclear deal with Tehran.

That is why we say to Iran, “Beware of the war that is coming your way.”