Hezbollah MP says only $9 billion needed to destroy Israel

“The resistance only needs $9 billion and there will be nothing left called Israel in the region,” said Mohammed Raad, the head of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc in the Lebanese parliament.

 Head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc Mohamed Raad gestures as he talks at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon July 26, 2021. (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL Published: APRIL 17, 2022 19:19Email Twitter Facebook fb-messenger

Mohammed Raad, the head of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc in the Lebanese parliament declared on Saturday that it would take a mere $9 billion to obliterate the State of Israel.

“The resistance only needs $9 billion and there will be nothing left called Israel in the region,” said Raad, who previously met with French president Emmanuel Macron, according to a news broadcast by Lebanese outlet MTV.

MTV tweeted Raad’s remarks to its 1.4 million followers on Twitter.

The Islamic Republic of Iran — the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism as defined by the US state department — is the main financer of Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. Raad also said that $900 billion was spent to destroy Yemen during the unfolding civil war.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah members carry the coffin of Jihad Moughniyah during his funeral in Beirut’s suburbs January 19, 2015. The man (bottom C, wearing glasses) is the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohamed Raad. (credit: REUTERS/AZIZ TAHER)
Lebanon’s Hezbollah members carry the coffin of Jihad Moughniyah during his funeral in Beirut’s suburbs January 19, 2015. The man (bottom C, wearing glasses) is the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohamed Raad. (credit: REUTERS/AZIZ TAHER)
France has outlawed Hezbollah’s military wing yet continues to block a full terror designation of Hezbollah within the EU. Meanwhile the US, the Arab League, Germany, Japan, Canada, Austria, the United Kingdom, and additional European and Latin American countries classify Hezbollah’s entire organization a foreign terrorist movement.

“What bankrupted the Lebanese and plunged them into the latest economic and financial crisis is the U.S. domination, which wanted to besiege the resistance and failed to do so,” Raad said in early April, according to Lebanese news site Naharnet.

“It then sought to besiege all state institutions, which could not bear the siege, so they collapsed and became a burden on people, our resistant environment and the resistance,” he added.

“Some people say that those who don’t communicate with the Americans are not worthy of living in this country, but we won’t communicate nor talk with the Americans, and we have the right to defend our existence against those threatening it,” said Raad.

In response to Raad’s comments in early April, Michael Young, an expert on Lebanon, tweeted “What bankrupted Lebanon was a vampirical, kleptocratic political class that Hezbollah has been defending, at times through violence, since the protests of 2019. Mohammed Raad is not going to fool anyone about this.”

 

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-704416


‘Continued harm to al-Aqsa is a red line for us,’ Islamist party leader says amid skirmishes at Jerusalem holy site; PA, Palestinian terror groups and Jordan condemn police actions

 

Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City on April 15, 2022. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City on April 15, 2022. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

The leader of the Islamist Ra’am party said Friday that he had informed his coalition partners that violent clashes on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem were a “red line” that could further harm Israel’s unstable government.

“The continued harm to Al-Aqsa is a red line for us, including in the context of coalition stability,” Abbas said in an interview on Radio Al-Shams.

“In the case of Al-Aqsa, there are no political considerations,” he added, referring to the holy site by the name of the mosque there.

The current Israeli government has been brought to the brink of collapse in recent days after a member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party quit the coalition, causing it to lose its razor-thin majority. The 120-member Knesset is now deadlocked, with both the coalition and opposition comprising 60 seats apiece.

The Ra’am chief’s comments came as clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli police at the Temple Mount early Friday morning, resulting in over 100 injuries. Hundreds were reportedly arrested as well.

The party as a whole also sharply condemned the police response, repeating that “Al-Aqsa is [part of] the faith and there is no place for political considerations regarding it.”

“Muslims have the exclusive right to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The daily invasions are an aggression against that exclusive right,” Ra’am added.

Ra’am MK Mansour Abbas speaks in the Knesset plenum on January 5, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Ra’am MK Mazen Ghnaim later threatened to quit the coalition “if the actions of the security forces at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque aren’t halted immediately.”

“A government that acts this way… has no right to exist,” he said in a statement addressed to Bennett.

Amid the clashes, police said in a statement that it was committed to allowing prayers to take place at the holy site. “We call on the worshipers to maintain order and observe the prayers in an orderly manner. The Israel Police will not allow rioters to disrupt the prayers and disrupt public order,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Bennett held a meeting with Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and Public Security Minister Omer Barlev at a Border Police base in Jerusalem. “[We are] working to provide security for Israeli citizens,” Bennett tweeted.

“We have repeatedly said that we will do our best to allow freedom of worship on the Temple Mount, and this reality has not changed,” Barlev wrote on Twitter. “The policemen who are there are acting with great courage and in difficult conditions, while they have had to confront violent elements who have collected stones and iron bars in order to infringe on the freedom of worship on the Mount and at the Western Wall.”

Shabtai said: “We won’t allow any handful [of people] to disturb the calm or freedom of worship.”

In this government handout photo, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (2nd-R) visits the base of an undercover Border Police unit that operates in the West Bank, April 15, 2022. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Gaza’s Hamas rulers condemned the incidents, saying in a statement that Israel would bear the consequences of its “brutal assaults.”

“Our people in Jerusalem are not alone in the battle for Al-Aqsa. The whole Palestinian people and its noble resistance and its vital power are with them,” said Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhum.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terror group in the Gaza Strip, also threatened Israel over the clashes.

“The enemy will realize that the fire it is lighting, in its blind contempt, will turn back on it and burn it,” Islamic Jihad said in a statement.

“Unless the occupation removes its hands from Al-Aqsa and stops aggressing against our people, the confrontation will be sooner and harder than they believe,” Islamic Jihad concluded.

Gaza terror groups earlier this week repeated that Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque were red lines for them.

Israeli security forces clash with Palestinians at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City on April 15, 2022. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

The foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank-based rival of Hamas, issued a statement condemning what it said were “heinous crimes” committed by Israeli police on the Mount. The ministry said it holds the Israeli government directly responsible for any consequences of the clashes.

“The storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the entry of the occupation forces… is a dangerous development and sacrilege, and it is tantamount to declaring war on our Palestinian people,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, in a separate statement carried by the official WAFA news agency.

Jordan similarly condemned “in the most severe terms” what it called an Israeli “invasion” of the Temple Mount and demanded that Israel immediately withdraw its forces from the holy site. A spokesperson for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry warned of the “danger of this grave escalation” at the shrine.

Other Israeli lawmakers, including the Joint List’s Sami Abu Shehadeh, condemned the “attack on worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque.”

“The invasion into the al-Aqsa Mosque and the attack on worshipers in the mosque in the holiest month of Islam and hours before Friday prayers in the month of Ramadan is a red line, and [Prime Minister Naftali] Bennett is the one who bears full responsibility for all the developments of his decisions to ignite the area,” Shehadeh said on Twitter.


As Baghdad’s top diplomat visits Tehran, Iranian President Raisi accuses Iraqi Kurdish region of ‘negligence,’ says keeping close eye on Israel

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (R) receives his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein (L) during a welcome ceremony in the capital Tehran, on April 13, 2022. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (R) receives his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein (L) during a welcome ceremony in the capital Tehran, on April 13, 2022. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned neighboring Iraq on Thursday not to allow its soil to be used for activities that disrupt the Islamic Republic’s security, his office said.

His comments follow accusations by Iran last month that Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region had hosted a “strategic center” used by Tehran’s arch-enemy Israel.

“The president emphasized that Iran strongly expects neighboring countries, especially Iraq, not to allow any presence that is disruptive to the security of the Islamic Republic,” a statement by Raisi’s office said.

He accused Iraq’s Kurdistan region of “negligence,” adding that Iran is closely monitoring the movements of Israel and will not allow it to endanger the security of the region through any country, including Iraq.

The Iranian president made the remarks in Tehran during a meeting with visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.

Iraq’s top diplomat pledged that his country will not be a base for actions against Iran’s security, the statement added.

“We are ready for extensive cooperation, including in the field of security, to prevent any threat to the interests of Iran,” Fuad said, according to Raisi’s office.

Last month, Iran targeted the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, with a dozen ballistic missiles that lightly wounded two civilians.

A damaged mansion is shown following an overnight Iranian missile attack in Erbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, on March 13, 2022. (Safin Hamed/AFP)

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the country’s military, confirmed at the time that they fired the projectiles and targeted a “strategic center” used by Israel.

Erbil governor Oumid Khouchnaw dismissed as “baseless” any notion of Israeli sites in and around Erbil, saying “there are no Israeli sites in the region.”

The Iraqi foreign ministry condemned the attack and summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest the strikes.

Iran holds considerable influence over the federal government in Baghdad.

“Iraq considers itself not only a neighbor but also an ally and a friend of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian president’s office further quoted Baghdad’s top diplomat as saying.