The secretary-general of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, addressed today the possibility of a war between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other, and how his organization would act in such a scenario.
In recorded remarks released during a “solidarity meeting with Iran,” Qassem said that “various parties” had approached Hezbollah seeking assurances that it would not intervene or become involved in a potential confrontation.
According to Qassem, those parties explained that the US and Israel are considering several scenarios: striking Hezbollah first and then Iran, striking Iran first and then Hezbollah, or launching a simultaneous attack on both. “In the face of these intertwined and similar possibilities, and in the face of aggression that does not distinguish between us, we are involved in what is happening, we are a potential target of aggression, and we are determined to defend ourselves,” he said.
Qassem stressed that Hezbollah is not adopting a neutral position, and that the organization’s course of action—whether intervention or restraint—“will be determined in real time, according to the circumstances, the nature of the campaign, and the interest that exists at that moment.” He added that disparities in the balance of power do not, in his view, negate what he called the right to self-defense.