Saturday 22 August 2009

Peres: Hezbollah Has 80,000 Missiles that Might Bring Calamity to Lebanon

Peres: Hezbollah Has 80,000 Missiles that Might Bring Calamity to Lebanon

22/08/2009 Israeli President Shimon Peres said in comments published Saturday that Israel knew about "80,000 missiles" in the possession of Hezbollah.

In an interview with the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper, Peres cast doubt on "Hezbollah’s goals and the justifications for its presence."

"Hezbollah is working for its own interests and will always find a pretext to continue its policy against Israel, even if the (Israeli army) withdrew from Shebaa Farms and the Lebanese Ghajar village," he claimed.

"Lebanon used to have an ambition to become the Switzerland of the Orient, and why not? But instead it has become the Iran of the region," he said.

He said that Hezbollah’s missiles "might lead to a disaster for the Lebanese because the last war brought unnecessary calamities to Lebanon." Peres was referring to Israel's 33-day war with Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 Lebanese civilians, a third of them children.

Asked if Israel would respond to a Hezbollah attack against Israeli targets abroad to avenge the assassination last year of Hezbollah military commander martyr Imad Moghniyeh (Hajj Redwan), Peres answered: "I do not know what this revenge is about. Moghniyeh himself was a top assassin and he who kills becomes a target as well."

"He was the head of (Hezbollah’s) special operations, and no one knows who killed him. There is no evidence that a certain side carried out the assassination. And obviously if Israel is attacked it will defend itself," Peres said.

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