Hezbollah, Israel claim victory, reset deterrence
Nasrallah steps back from confrontation with Israel after attack; Iran sanctions in perspective; Netanyahu plan may backfire; Kurdish victory in Kobani a setback for Turkey; Are Iraqi Kurdish land grabs sowing future conflict?
Nasrallah: "We don’t want a war"
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Jan. 30, "We don’t want a war … but we are not afraid of war," adding, "The resistance no longer cares about rules of engagement, and we do not recognize them in confronting the enemy. We have the right to confront the enemy at any time, place or manner."
Nasrallah described how Hezbollah’s Jan. 28 attack on an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military convoy in the disputed Shebaa Farms — which killed two Israeli soldiers — was, in his score, a proportional retaliation for Israel’s assassination of six senior Hezbollah leaders and an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general 10 days earlier in Quneitra, Syria.
Ali Hashem reports from Lebanon: “It was clear that the Shiite group had decided to throw the ball back into the Israeli court. From the Islamists' perspective, the attack was needed to restore the deterrence power Hezbollah has maintained since its war with Israel in 2006.”
