Nasrallah.

BEIRUT — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah rejected “Israel’s threats of war on Lebanon,” saying it is fully prepared to defend the country, while an Israeli MP said in the event of war the Israeli army would return Lebanon “to the Stone Age.”

Addressing a mass gathering of Lebanese Shi’a celebrating the commemoration of Ashura in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Nasrallah warned Israel of the consequences of a war with Lebanon. 

“Israel’s threats of another war on Lebanon do not stem from its power because it has lost hope and is concerned… The resistance is a real threat to Israel,” Nasrallah said. 

“Israelis are saying in the media that they would have to close down the Ben Gurion Airport and the Haifa port and yes, that’s true.”

Nasrallah confirmed the Israeli reports, saying “there is no place extending on the land of occupied Palestine that the resistance’s rockets cannot reach.” 

Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a member of the hawkish Likud Party, blasted Nasrallah’s speech in an angry response. 

“In order to avoid any doubt on the matter, Nasrallah, the cowardly braggart, should know this: that option does not exist for us,” Katz wrote on his Facebook page. 

“If such a scenario does materialize, we will raze Lebanon to the ground! We will return it to the Stone Age and bury [Nasrallah] under the rocks.”

In September, Israel’s Channel 2 featured an interview with an IDF brigade commander who predicted that any hypothetical future war with Hezbollah “will be a whole different story” from Israel’s latest military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which left 2,100 Gazans dead and 66 on the Israeli side.

According to the Israeli report, Hezbollah has an estimated 100,000 precision-guided rockets that could – unlike the antiquated types lobbed into Israeli territory by Hamas – overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

During his Monday speech, Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s candidate for the presidency is the Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun. Lebanon has been without a president since the end of Michel Sulaiman’s term in May.

It was the first time Nasrallah publicly named Aoun as its candidate.

Nasrallah also declared “victory” for his Hezbollah movement against self-declared jihadists in Syria as tens of thousands of Shia Muslims gathered in Beirut to commemorate Ashura.

“These takfiris [Muslims who accuse other Muslims of apostasy] will be defeated in all areas and countries, and we will feel honoured that we played a role in their defeat,” he said.

Meanwhile, amid this climate of regional tensions, France and Saudi Arabia put the final touches on a deal that would see French defense contractors provide Lebanon with $3 billion worth of military aid for which Saudi Arabia would pick up the bill, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. 

“I welcome the signing of the contract to assist the Lebanese army,” he said in a statement. “This agreement, financed by a Saudi donation, will strengthen the Lebanese army, which is the guarantor of the unity and stability of Lebanon.”

The deal will help Lebanese military, which is often overshadowed by Hezbollah in terms of fighting potential, to “fulfill its mission to defend territory and in the fight against terrorism during a time at which Lebanon is threatened,” Fabius said. 

-RT, TAAN