‘Hezbollah unlikely to get involved in Gaza fighting’

We have to wait and see how dangerous the battle will be in Gaza, and if this is going to be a very long operation from the Israeli side, political analyst Kamel Wazne told RT.

On July 11 the northern Israeli town of Metula was attacked by a rocket supposedly launched from Lebanon. An Israel Defense Force spokesman said Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for the attack, though it is not clear who actually fired it. There are concerns Hezbollah may be involved in a new open confrontation with Israel.

RT:What's behind the rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanon?

Kamel Wazne: I think the Lebanese army and the Lebanese security apparatus would not allow this to happen from Lebanon at this juncture especially, it is very critical for Lebanon [not] to engage in any confrontation at this point or at any time, but this actually expected to see these missiles come from here and there. In the past the Lebanese army arrested a couple of Palestinians who were behind the launching of some missiles against Israel or against UNIFlL in Lebanon.

RT:How dangerous could the situation get with another nation apparently joining the conflict?

KW: The situation is very critical but it is still under control because when you have to think about this the Party of God will abide by the Lebanese government and its mission to be a deterrence and defense for the Lebanese country as long as Israeli does not escalate [the situation] on the Lebanese border. I do not expect that Hezbollah will be involved in this confrontation, but we have to wait and see how dangerous this battle will be in Gaza, and if this is going to be a very long operation from the Israeli side. Assuming the involvement of Hezbollah in Syria and the political situation in Lebanon, and the whole Middle East, which is on fire, maybe we can see a lot of restraint from the Lebanese side as far as this confrontation is going.

RT:How is the Israeli offensive on Gaza going to affect its relations with its other neighbors in the region in the long term?

KW: There is a lot of pressure now to stop this operation from the international community. We heard that Mr. Obama made a phone call to Mr. Netanyahu, but he asked to assess his political condition within his own government. I think the main reason there is pretty much about the internal conflict. When you look at the Middle East literally every country has a major internal conflict - Syria, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, so basically this confrontation in Gaza and the West Bank came from nowhere at this point. Maybe somebody timed it to be like that, but I think the level of the rockets and bombardment eventually can raise some major alarm within the international community and even within the Arab community which would push all the parties to abide by a ceasefire. But I don’t see it anytime soon; I think maybe the Israelis are really thinking of having a ground operation because they might feel it is the time [for] considering the business of the whole region in their own internal conflict.

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