Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday said that he does not trust statements by Israeli leaders who say the Jewish state does not seek to go to war with anyone.
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Launching the "Chariots of Fire" war games – the most extensive exercise of its kind in decades – Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday, "Israel neither seeks nor wants conflict with any entity but we are ready for any scenario.
"The enemy must know that if it forces us into conflict it will be made to pay a heavy price. The Israeli public must know that the State of Israel is stronger than all of our enemies combined and we remain ever-ready," the prime minister asserted.
In a video addressed from his bunker in Beirut to supporters ahead of Lebanon's May 15 elections, Nasrallah noted that he found Bennett's remarks "particularly interesting … given that I received messages through international channels saying that the Israelis emphasize that they are not interested in carrying out any military action in Lebanon.
"The Israeli enemy cannot be trusted. The Israeli enemy's position derives from the power of the resistance in Lebanon. We will remain on high alert until the Israeli maneuvers are done, as will the Palestinian resistance," he said, referring to the IDF's drill.
He also took aim at the US mediator in Lebanon's maritime border dispute with Israel, calling Amos Hochstein "dishonest and compromised and supportive towards Israel."
It was reported in October that President Joe Biden had tapped the Israeli-born Hochstein to take over as mediator in US-sponsored talks between Israel and Lebanon to resolve a maritime border dispute over natural gas exploration.
Lebanon hopes to tap into oil and gas discoveries potentially worth tens of billions of dollars as the country looks to exit from an economic crisis that the World Bank has said is the worst financial collapse since the mid-19th century.
In his address, Nasrallah touted the natural gas reserves as a potential game-changer for Lebanon's economy, while warning that "negotiating with Hochstein would not lead to any good outcome."
Directly addressing the Lebanese government involved in the maritime border talks, Nasrallah said that "if you want to continue negotiating, go ahead, but not in Naqoura [the UNIFIL site in southern Lebanon hosting the talks], and not with Hochstein, Frankenstein, or any other Stein coming to Lebanon."
Israel and Lebanon are technically still in a state of war. They each claim about 330 square miles of Mediterranean waters as their exclusive economic zones.
In February, Hochstein said that he was "optimistic" that both sides were moving toward a deal.
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