ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – Israel and Hezbollah are on the brink of a full-scale war after the assassination of the Lebanese political and militia group’s longtime leader. Prolific Iranian-American international affairs observer Dr. Mohammad Marandi shares his thoughts with Sputnik about the implications of the escalating violence, and what happens now.
“Hezbollah has thousands of kilometers of underground tunnels throughout south and central Lebanon, and probably in parts of northern Lebanon, which are very sophisticated, much more sophisticated than what Hamas and Islamic Jihad have in Gaza,” Marandi told Sputnik, commenting on reports that Israel is planning a ground invasion of southern Lebanon after assassinating Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah earlier in the week.
Hezbollah has “much better and more advanced weapons, because Lebanon wasn’t surrounded like Gaza. It’s much larger, and the terrain is much more suitable for defense,” Marandi stressed, predicting “hell for the Israeli regime” if and when its armies come knocking, and pointing to the militia’s successes expelling Israeli forces on past occasions, from the 80s occupation to the 2006 Lebanon War.
Characterizing Nasrallah’s death as “a huge loss,” Marandi said that his assassination will only galvanize Hezbollah and the resistance to “regroup and…hit back harder.”
“This movement against the empire, against colonialism, against apartheid and genocide is not something that is focused on a single person. A single person does not determine the fate of this movement,” Marandi said. Nasrallah “was a great man, but I think by murdering him, Israelis have done something that they will regret, even if they don’t comprehend this.”
As for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy of escalating aggression, his actions are a sign of desperation, according to the observer.
“I think there will probably be an Israeli invasion because Netanyahu needs a war for self-preservation…He has failed on all fronts, on the border with Lebanon and Gaza, he failed to take Gaza -a small piece of land, after almost a year. He’s failed in the West Bank. He’s failed in the Red Sea. The Americans fighting on his behalf there have been unsuccessful. He’s failed in Syria and Iraq. So he needs to continue, but also to escalate because the status quo is dangerous for him in the long run,” Marandi said.
“So [Netanyahu] may escalate even further. But the response of the Resistance is coming, it is forthcoming. And I have no doubt Iran will punish the regime as well. The collective Axis of Resistance will punish the regime,” Marandi summed up. (Sputnik)
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