Message of the head of Hezbollah: "They should have struck Israel, now it's too late"

Message of the head of Hezbollah: "They should have struck Israel, now it's too late"

Until a few hours ago, it was a question that was being speculated around the world, and the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, solved those dilemmas by saying:

"Some say we will go to war, but we already went to war on October 8. The possibility of escalation of tensions and full-scale war is real. An enemy who may be thinking about an attack or a pre-emptive operation will be committing the greatest stupidity in its history. If Israel is considering it, it will be the biggest mistake of their lives."

The guests of presenter and editor of the Usijanja show, Silvija Slamning, were prof. Predrag Marković, historian, prof. Ilija Kajtez, sociologist and security expert, and Dr. Rajko Petrović, research associate at the Institute for European Studies.

Marković first touched on Nasrallah's statement itself, which he pointed out was misinterpreted by many.

"Nasrallah formulated his position very cautiously. He said if Israel attacks, we are ready to respond. Second, Hezbollah did not attack, they poked Israel. If they wanted to attack, they would have attacked when Israel was in shock from the attack by Hamas on October 7.

Nasrallah said that October 7th was a surprise for them and they didn't know that Hamas was going to do it. I believe it because if it had spread so much, it would have reached Israel. It was already done undercover with the aim of not spreading a word about it," said Marković and added: "Hezbollah has been very restrained for the past month. If they didn't strike when Israel was completely stunned by the terrible tragedy, now the situation is even worse. I think this speech by Nasrallah says that Hezbollah will not start a total war."

Kajtez pointed out that he shares his opinion with Marković.

"The keys to the war are not in the hands of Hezbollah, Israel, or Hamas, but a little further and with much bigger and more serious players. I think that what the leader of Hezbollah read or said was written by "others".

Those "others" take care not to provoke the anger of Israel, that is, the USA, which is Iran. So practically, I also do not expect any radicalization on the part of Hezbollah, because if they wanted to, they could have entered that war much more fiercely."

Host Sylvia Slamnig was interested in what Nasrallah should have included in his speech so that people would conclude that his performance was dangerous and risky.

"First of all, they should have shown by their actions that they are at war apart from these provocations. Second, a month of waiting for that so-called historic speech, which in fact is anything but historical, speaks of hesitation. Iran does not like the escalation of the conflict at all, Turkey does not like the escalation of the conflict, Egypt too. Here, it seems to me that the highest price will be paid by Hamas, the people of Gaza. I think that only in the worst extortion, can we expect Hezbollah to get involved."

However, Petrović did not agree with his colleagues.

"I think that Hezbollah has shown during all these months that the conflicts have been going on that it is not ready to enter the conflict with all its capacities. On the other hand, it is trying to justify a kind of reputation that it thinks it enjoys among the Muslim world. For which the issue of Gaza and the West Bank is that Israel as a whole and Jerusalem in particular is extremely important. I think that the religious aspect of these conflicts is neglected a lot. That it will be especially important here how the other countries of the Muslim world will react."