Hezbollah leader Nasrallah threatens US: Instability in Lebanon will lead to instability in region

BEIRUT — Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened the US and Israel during a live broadcast on Thursday as Lebanon continues to grapple with an economic and political crisis that has recently seen a rise in security tensions. Nasrallah called for an “internal agreement” to lead to the election of a new Lebanese president but said there is “nothing new” to report on this front. Lebanon has been without a president since Syriac Maronite Michel Aoun’s term in office ended on 31 October 2022. On 6 February, Western and Arab powers met in Paris to discuss Lebanon’s political impasse.

Nasrallah warned the US that if it created chaos leading to the collapse of Lebanon, “you will lose everything in Lebanon.”

“We will use our weapons where it will hurt you, even if it will lead to a war with Israel. You should expect chaos in the whole region. Those who think that we will stand idly by are mistaken,” he said. He also warned against any procrastination regarding the exploitation of offshore gas and oil resources in Lebanon’s fields, threatening to prevent Israel from extracting them from the Karish gas field, a natural gas reservoir located in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The ambassadors to Lebanon of the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt met on 6 February to discuss the election of the next Lebanese president, but no official statement was issued at the end of the meeting. The current government, which resigned in May 2022 following parliamentary elections, is serving in a caretaker capacity and is therefore limited to handling day-to-day affairs. Hezbollah has made clear its support for the candidacy of its Christian ally Sleiman Frangieh, causing tensions with its other major Christian ally, Gebran Bassil.

The Mar Mikhael agreement, reached in 2006 between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), is in a delicate phase, according to Nasrallah. Tensions between Hezbollah and the FPM have raised fears that the agreement could implode, but for now, the two parties assure that this agreement still holds. Nasrallah called for the election of a president “who does not submit to American threats” during his last speech on 19 January.