Hezbollah’s media office issued a statement on Saturday stressing that the party does not make statements to the press under the so-called “Hezbollah sources” and has therefore denied reports published by Reuters about the aim of Hezbollah’s harsh words .
“Hezbollah’s media office reminds everyone in our media policy we never use the so-called ‘Hezbollah sources’ in our statements, and we do not use ‘sources close to Hezbollah,’” the party’s media office said in a statement.
Speeches by Hezbollah’s leader this week were aimed at making clear to the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump that the Lebanese group could strike U.S. interests by hitting Israel, a source familiar with its thinking said on Friday, Reuters said on Friday
Trump and administration officials have used strong rhetoric against Hezbollah’s political patron Iran and to support its main enemy Israel, including putting Tehran “on notice” over charges it violated a nuclear deal by test-firing a ballistic missile.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday described Trump as being an “idiot”. On Thursday he said that his group, which played a major role in ending Israel’s occupation of Lebanon, could strike its nuclear reactor at Dimona.
“We can turn the threat (of their nuclear capability) into an opportunity,” he said, signalling that Hezbollah could strike the Dimona reactor and other Israeli atomic sites according to the source familiar with Hezbollah thinking.
The harsh words for Israel and Trump were aimed at drawing “red lines” for the new U.S. administration, the source familiar with the thinking of the Lebanese Shi’ite group said. “Until now, Hezbollah is not worried about the arrival of Trump into the U.S. administration, but rather, it called him an idiot this week and drew red lines in front of any action that threatens Lebanon or Hezbollah’s presence in Syria,” the source said.
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