Nasrallah rhetoric sets ‘red lines’ for Trump
beirut — The Hezbollah leader’s harsh words for Israel and US President Donald Trump this week were aimed at drawing “red lines” to prevent any threatening action against Lebanon or the group, a source familiar with the group’s thinking said on Friday.
Trump and regime officials have used strong rhetoric against Hezbollah’s political patron Iran.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday described Trump as being an “idiot”. On Thursday he said that his group could strike its nuclear reactor at Dimona.
The harsh words for Israel and Trump were aimed at drawing “red lines” for the new US regime, the source familiar with the thinking of the Lebanese group said.
“Until now, Hezbollah is not worried about the arrival of Trump into the US 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.
Israel and the United States both regard Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. The group was founded as a resistance movement against Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon which ended in 2000, a role that meant Beirut allowed it to keep its arms after the country’s civil war ended in 1990.
Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun, an ally of Hezbollah, defended the group this week, saying: “As long as the Lebanese army lacks sufficient power to face Israel, we feel the need for (Hezbollah’s) arsenal because it complements the army’s role”.
In his speech on Sunday, Nasrallah said: “We are not worried (about Trump), but rather we are very optimistic because when there is an idiot living in the White House, who boasts of his idiocy, it is the beginning of relief for the weak of the world”.
On Thursday he urged Israel to dismantle 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.