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Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's speech being broadcast to a Beirut rally on Sunday.(Reuters)
Last update - 03:11 13/11/2007
Nasrallah: IDF border drills show Israel gearing up for new war
By The Associated Press
Tags: Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah 

The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces' recent military exercises near the Lebanese border were intended to prepare for a new war on Lebanon.

"The enemy has been conducting military maneuvers for months. The latest maneuvers occurred a few weeks ago near the Lebanese border in which 50,000 Israeli officers and soldiers participated," Hassan Nasrallah told a Hezbollah rally in south Beirut. "These maneuvers are to prepare for an attack on Lebanon," he said.

He said Hezbollah's military maneuvers in southern Lebanon last week were carried out in response to the IDF drills and were designed to send out a clear message to Israel that his fighters were ready to defend Lebanon if it was attacked again by Israel.
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"I tell the [Israeli] enemy that these maneuvers were real, serious and big. I am not going to give details. There is a great deal of readiness [by Hezbollah] which the enemy must understand," Nasrallah said in his speech Sunday.

"These maneuvers were intended to send out a clear message to the world which is besieging us and to this enemy that that the resistance in Lebanon possesses determination, men and the necessary and sufficient weapons to defend Lebanon," the black-turbaned cleric said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Without elaborating, he added, "The resistance is ready to make a victory for Lebanon that will change the region's face."

The rally, attended by several thousand Hezbollah supporters waving the group's yellow banners and the Lebanese flag, was organized by the group to mark Lebanon's Martyr's Day.

Hezbollah's deputy leader Sheikh Naeem Kassem last week confirmed that the group had staged its largest-ever military maneuver near the border with Israel, claiming that the exercise was intended as preparations to counter Israeli plans for war.

Kassem told the Israeli Arab newspaper Sawat al-Balad that the maneuvers were "large and important parts of our preparation so that we won't be surprised." It was the first interview of the kind given since the maneuvers were first reported.

The pro-Hezbollah Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported last Monday that thousands of the group's guerrillas had staged the exercise near Israel's border in southern Lebanon, but Prime Minister Fuad Saniora later said the reported exercise was probably just a simulation.

Israel Air Force warplanes dropped flares over the southern Lebanon hours after Hezbollah officials confirmed the exercise.

Monday's report in marked the first time Hezbollah, with its highly secretive military wing, revealed such exercises through a close newspaper. The maneuvers, if confirmed, could pose a major challenge to a UN-brokered cease-fire that ended last year's war with Israel.

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  • Hezbollah: Drill held at Israel border meant to ready us for war
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      1.   Sure, IDF holding drills to prepare for a new war that would be 17:16  |  A border guard 11/11/07
      2.   You Lebanese have a worthless PM 17:45  |  Conroy 11/11/07
      3.   Israelis are heading for Timbucktoo 17:49  |  Dutch 11/11/07
      4.   Collusion... 17:51  |  Esther 11/11/07
      5.   and hizbullah`s drill last week was for...? 17:53  |  matt 11/11/07
      6.   Who Started the War This Time 18:12  |  Bernie 11/11/07
      7.   Army of Allah .... 18:18  |  Jacob 11/11/07
      8.   No relation to the `exercises` held the other day of course 18:34  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 11/11/07
      9.   RE: #1 18:47  |  Igor 11/11/07
      10.   border guard... dont you mean 18:52  |  Hasan 11/11/07
      11.   MISERABLE LEBANON 19:03  |  Iskander 11/11/07
      12.   Would anyone, pleeeease stuff his big mouth... 19:13  |  The World 11/11/07
      13.   Nasrallah should realize in the next war he will be taken out 19:25  |  Shepherd 11/11/07
      14.   Go Nasralah!!! 19:39  |  shira 11/11/07
      15.   Belligerent Israel 19:51  |  POP 11/11/07
      16.   What is he yapping about! 20:03  |  Stephen 11/11/07
      17.   Time To Attack Them 20:12  |  dyinglikeflies 11/11/07
      18.   Iran, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon 20:58  |  Steve 11/11/07
      19.   Good Job UN...... (a sad joke) 21:21  |  Proud Israeli 11/11/07
      20.   Israel will continue to be the aggressor 21:37  |  Natallie Durson 11/11/07
      21.   Interesting, considering that they always attacked us first 21:48  |  Dan 11/11/07
      22.   Israeli `plans for war` 22:12  |  Dan 11/11/07
      23.   Durson- If That`s What It Takes, Where Is The Problem? 22:19  |  Martin Luther 11/11/07
      24.   change the face of the region 22:37  |  Shmuelshachor 11/11/07
      25.   #5 steve from minnie 22:51  |  James D 11/11/07
      26.   ashoole 22:52  |  11/11/07
      27.   proud of u u r the punisher 23:28  |  sweden.m 11/11/07
      28.   More Arab BS 23:29  |  Frank 11/11/07
      29.   # 18 Election.? What election? 23:49  |  Stephen. 11/11/07
      30.   back 23:55  |  abboud 11/11/07
      31.   To Shepherd # 13 00:09  |  Libnanee 12/11/07
      32.   To Conroy #2 00:48  |  I.A. 12/11/07
      33.   #21 Dan 00:49  |  Boycott 12/11/07
      34.   No. 25 James 01:01  |  Steve 12/11/07
      35.   HE forgets he started the last one,bombing Israeli civillians 01:15  |  PETER SM 12/11/07
      36.   what`s wrong with military drills? 01:34  |  nmf 12/11/07
      37.   natallie durson is ignorant of 01:37  |  nmf 12/11/07
      38.   To everyone so far... 02:13  |  nick 12/11/07
      39.   100s of Thousands of Rockets!!! 02:23  |  Sayan 12/11/07
      40.   UN COWARDS & PAPER SOLDIERS 02:40  |  NEIL GOLAN 12/11/07
      41.   OOP`S 02:43  |  NJG 12/11/07
      42.   DIDNT KNOW WAR ENDED SINCE ISREAL ESTABLISHED 02:54  |  TOBIA 12/11/07
      43.   TO CONROY! 03:08  |  get the info first! 12/11/07
      44.   To #9 Igor 03:30  |  Realist 12/11/07
      45.   #I.A. 32 10:08  |  Conroy 12/11/07
      46.   #40, NEIL GOLAN, i dare the idf go after hezbollah 12:47  |  VIPER 12/11/07
      47.   Viper you slithery snake 13:47  |  Conroy 12/11/07
      48.   Nasrallah again flatters himself as protector 03:55  |  Sam 13/11/07
      49.   #10 Hasan 06:22  |  * BEN JABO 13/11/07
      50.   #15 POP goes the weasel 06:24  |  * BEN JABO 13/11/07
      51.   #18 Steve - MN 06:27  |  * BEN JABO 13/11/07
      52.   #46 VIPER - Still in the grandstands 06:31  |  * BEN JABO 13/11/07
      53.   #47, CONROY, the believer of propaganda and santa clause 07:21  |  VIPER 13/11/07
      54.   The UN 07:30  |  DBP 13/11/07
      55.   nasrallah. 07:31  |  nino 13/11/07
      56.   I feel sorry for the Israelis and the Arabs! 11:16  |  Basil 13/11/07
      57.   I pity the average Israeli! 11:54  |  Basil Salah 13/11/07
      58.   # 57 Peace offering.! Tell us Basil. 16:53  |  Stephen. 13/11/07
      59.   ASStricks BEN JABO # 52 re Viper #46 Your mommy 04:17  |  American in NY 14/11/07
      60.   #59, AMERICAN IN NY, just as dumb as ben-jabo 10:21  |  VIPER 14/11/07
      61.   #59 American Nazi in NY 15:46  |  * BEN JABO 14/11/07
      62.   #60 VIPER/APARTHEID 15:49  |  * BEN JABO 14/11/07
      63.   IDF are like the Boy Scouts 01:24  |  * BEN JABO 03/01/08
      64.   #6 Bernie 01:28  |  * BEN JABO 03/01/08
      65.   #10 Hasan - u have to stop reading Arab propaganda 01:30  |  * BEN JABO 03/01/08
      66.   #57 some opinions 03:51  |  mojeme al mani 03/01/08
      67.   # 66 17:07  |  Palestinian 19/01/08
      68.   Nasrallah the coward.!! 17:55  |  John Fellows 19/01/08
      69.   Israel Is inocent 11:23  |  Dani 20/01/08
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