Nasrallah: Israel would not bomb Iran without green light from US

Hezbollah chief says US signing of nuclear agreement with Iran signals end of American monopoly on power, likely prevents a Mideast war.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Nasrallah Nov 14 2013 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Nasrallah Nov 14 2013 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah praised the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, saying that it had prevented a potential war in the region.
"The number one winner in this deal is the people of this region ... I can not say that this agreement has annulled the choice of war permanently but I can say it has pushed it away for a long time."
Speaking in an interview with Lebanon's OTV on Tuesday, Nasrallah said that Israel would not possibly bomb Iran's nuclear facilities without receiving a green light from the US.
He stated that US Secretary of State John Kerry had made it clear that America did not want any more wars in the Middle East. He stated that the agreement signals the fact that no single nation has a monopoly on power.
"The wars they fought in Iraq have failed, in Afghanistan they reached a dead end and the wars on Lebanon and Gaza foiled the New Middle East scheme, and now they have failed in Syria," Lebanese news portal Naharnet quoted Nasrallah as saying in the interview.
"They were not able to topple the regime in Iran, but I cannot claim that they did not succeed in shaking its economic situation," he added.
Nasrallah claimed that the US had wished to discuss a range of issues with Iran, but Iran had insisted on focusing solely on its nuclear program.
The Hezbollah leader said that Iran was open to dialogue with Gulf states who have traditionally had an antagonistic relationship with Tehran, but Saudi Arabia was closing all diplomatic doors at the urging of the Americans, and was determined to continue the fight inside Syria "until the last bullet".
"There is a Saudi decision to try and change the events on the ground until January 22 ... they will fail," adding that he expected fierce battles in Syria until then.
"If you monitor all the Saudi-financed media outlets, the Saudi war against Iran has never stopped. The Saudis waged wars against the Iranians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Gulf, Iraq and Syria, and of course through its proxies, because it does not dare to wage a direct war," he stated.
Nasrallah lauded Iran's standing in the region, but claimed Hezbollah was not completely subservient to Tehran.
"Right now, Iran is the most important state in the region and it is consulting with us and it sometimes endorses our viewpoint on certain issues," he stated.
Nasrallah defended Hezbollah's intervention in the Syrian civil war on the side of President Bashar Assad, stating that Hezbollah had reluctantly joined the fray when Lebanese residents in Syrian border towns asked for their help.
Reuters contributed to this report.