Hezbollah Chief: We Will do ‘Anything to Stop Extremely Dangerous’ Annexation

TEL AVIV — The leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, Hassan Nasrallah, on Tuesday vowed to “do anything” to prevent Israel’s plans to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank.

“We support the Palestinian people and its leadership, and are ready to do anything to block and prevent the annexation plan,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Hezbollah TV marking the anniversary of the Second Lebanon War.

He added the annexation “plot has extremely dangerous consequences for Lebanon.”

He also revealed he spoke to the head of the Gaza-based Hamas terror group, Ismail Haniyeh, and vowed Hezbollah’s loyalty in fighting Israel.

“We must stand alongside our brothers, the Palestinians, as one people, as a nation and a resistance,” Nasrallah said.

President Donald Trump’s so-called Vision for Peace sees Israel annexing 30 percent of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. It also delineates a demilitarized Palestinian state established on most of the West Bank with parts of eastern Jerusalem that are outside the Israeli security fence as its capital.

If Israel goes ahead with the plans, the Palestinian leadership warned it would unilaterally declare a state based on the pre-1967 lines.

Nasrallah also said Hezbollah was in discussions with the Lebanese government regarding the possibility of Iran supplying refined oil products in exchange for Lebanese pounds in an attempt to alleviate the country’s economic crisis, the Reuters news agency reported.

Since October, the Lebanese pound has lost some 80 percent of its value. 

During the speech, Nasrallah also slammed U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea as a “military ruler” who was interfering in the country’s internal affairs after she charged the party with stealing billions of state funds.

“Since the new ambassador arrived in Lebanon… she has dealt with Lebanon as though she is a military ruler, or a high commissary, as though she has authority,” Nasrallah said.

“Every day she attacks [Hezbollah]… she insults and offends us.  She is pushing the Lebanese toward infighting, sedition and civil strife.”

Nasrallah said he would order Hezbollah lawmakers in Lebanon’s parliament to call on the foreign ministry to reprimand the American envoy.

After Shea criticized Hezbollah, a Shi’ite judge ruled that Lebanese media were banned from interviewing her on the basis that her comments had incited sectarian strife.