BEIRUT (AP) 鈥� The deputy leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday the only sure path to a cease-fire on the is a full cease-fire in Gaza.
鈥淚f there is a , we will stop without any discussion,鈥� Hezbollah鈥檚 deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said in an interview with The Associated Press at the group鈥檚 political office in Beirut鈥檚 southern suburbs.
Hezbollah's participation in the has been as a 鈥渟upport front鈥� for its ally, Hamas, Kassem said, and 鈥渋f the war stops, this military support will no longer exist.鈥�
But, he said, if Israel scales back its military operations without a formal cease-fire agreement and full withdrawal from Gaza, the implications for the Lebanon-Israel border conflict are less clear.
鈥淚f what happens in Gaza is a mix between cease-fire and no cease-fire, war and no war, we can鈥檛 answer (how we would react) now, because we don鈥檛 know its shape, its results, its impacts,鈥� Kassem said during a 40-minute interview.
In recent weeks, with Gaza cease-fire talks faltering, fears have increased of an escalation on the Lebanon-Israel front. Hezbollah has traded near-daily strikes with Israeli forces along their border over the past nine months. The low-level conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.
Months of internationally brokered Gaza cease-fire talks have repeatedly failed. Hamas has demanded an end to the war, and not just a pause in fighting, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to make such a commitment until Israel realizes its goals of destroying Hamas鈥� military and governing capabilities and brings home the roughly 120 hostages held by Hamas.
Last month, the Israeli army said it has 鈥渁pproved and validated鈥� plans for an offensive in Lebanon if no diplomatic solution is reached to the ongoing clashes. Any decision to launch such an operation would have to come from the country鈥檚 political leadership.
Some Israeli officials have said they are seeking a diplomatic solution to the standoff and hope to avoid war. At the same time, they have warned that the scenes of destruction seen in Gaza will be repeated in Lebanon if war breaks out.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, is far more powerful than Hamas and believed to have a vast arsenal of rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel.
Kassem said he doesn't believe that Israel has the ability or has made a decision to launch a war at present. He warned that even if Israel intends to launch a limited operation in Lebanon that stops short of a full-scale war, it should not expect the fighting to remain limited.
鈥淚srael can decide what it wants: limited war, total war, partial war,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it should expect that our response and our resistance will not be within a ceiling and rules of engagement set by Israel鈥� If Israel wages the war, it means it doesn鈥檛 control its extent or who enters into it.鈥�
The latter was an apparent in the Iran-backed so-called 鈥渁xis of resistance鈥� in the region. Armed groups in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere - and, potentially, Iran itself - could enter the fray in the event of a full-scale war in Lebanon, which might also pull in Israel鈥檚 strongest ally, the United States.
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Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
Abby Sewell And Sarah El Deeb, The Associated Press
