(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — A senior Hezbollah official warned the threat of ISIS in Lebanon cannot be underestimated, stressting that occupying the country was part of the group’s plan.
“The terrorist threat on Lebanon is actual, real and continuous,” said Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s executive council. “And whoever doubts or underestimates (the threat) is either ignorant or negligent, and he harms the high national interest of Lebanon.”
Speaking at a ceremony in the southern village of Shaqra, Kaouk accused “whoever denies Hezbollah’s role in protecting” Lebanon of being “oblivious to the truth.”
“ISIS’s decision has been announced. Their pretended slogan is to create the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria, which includes Lebanon,” he said.
Stressing that Lebanon needed a unified defense strategy, Kaouk argued that “hesitation, procrastination, underestimation and aggressive and instigating speech give a free service to the takfiri plan.”
Hezbollah’s MP Nawwaf Al-Moussawi echoed Kaouk, stressing that Lebanon needed “agreements that should lead to creating one united Lebanese front against the takfiri threat that wishes to impose darkness on Lebanon and the region.”