Lebanon says working with Hezbollah to prevent war

“We are working with Hezbollah and other Palestinian organizations here to prevent a war, and we’d like the US also to pressure Israel not to start a war,” he told CNN on Sunday.

Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that “all scenarios” are possible on the Lebanon-Israel border, warning Israel against further escalation of its operations on the Lebanese border, as he repeated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Bou Habib stated Israel provokes Lebanon “every day” and said he believes Hezbollah does not want a war.

“We are under the impression, they didn’t tell us, but we are under the impression that there wouldn’t be any big war coming unless Israel attacks Lebanon or the situation gets very bad in Gaza,” he added.

He said he believes Hezbollah when it says it had no prior knowledge to the October 7 attack by Hamas but conceded that that doesn’t mean the two groups don’t have relations with one another.

“One small incident can start a war. Hopefully not, Lebanese do not want war, I don’t think Hezbollah wants a war … hopefully the Israelis don’t start a war with us,” he added.

Amid the conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israeli troops and Hamas, tension has flared along the border between the Israeli-occupied territories and Lebanon, with exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and the Israeli regime have been exchanging sporadic fire since October 8, a day after the Zionist regime started bringing the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip under a relentless and indiscriminate war.

The Lebanese resistance movement has announced the group’s “guns and rockets” were with Palestinian fighters, and stressed that it will intensify its attacks against Israel if necessary.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has recently told senior Israeli officials that Hezbollah is “ten times stronger than Hamas”, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster has reported.

President Joe Biden and his aides have advised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch pre-emptive strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, The New York Times daily newspaper has reported.

Hezbollah has already fought off two Israeli wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, forcing a humiliating retreat upon the Tel Aviv regime’s military in both cases.

The resistance movement has vowed to resolutely defend Lebanon in case of any Israeli-imposed war.