LEBANON: Hezbollah threatens to shoot down Israeli jets

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Hezbollah said it has a right to acquire and use antiaircraft weaponry against Israeli warplanes, in a ceremony commemorating assassinated leaders of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group.

‘We have the right to possess any weapons including air defense arms, and we have all the right to use these arms if we wished to,’ Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said to crowds in the southern suburb of Beirut, which is the group’s stronghold.

Nasrallah did not confirm or deny whether the group had acquired antiaircarft missiles but said that Hezbollah has built its successes on the ‘basis of surprises.’

Israeli warplanes have launched regular flights over Lebanon since the 2006 war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.

Nasrallah said that Israel’s superiority in its wars is only due to its air force, adding that Israeli ground troops have proved their weaknesses during the 2006 war and the latest offensive on Gaza.

‘If the air equation changes, the equation for the whole struggle changes,’ he said.

Nasrallah’s speech follows by days the first anniversary of the car bomb killing of Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mughniyah, in Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Israel, which denies having a role in his death, has threatened to attack Lebanon if Hezbollah tries to avenge his killing.

Hezbollah’s leader said that his party will keep ‘its promise’ to take revenge for the assassination of Mughniyah. ‘This promise will be achieved if God wills,’ he said without giving any further details.

‘If any Israeli government thinks any day to send its troops and army to our land, it will be destroyed,’ he said, adding that there was ‘no difference between all the Israeli leaders’ in comments on the latest Israeli elections that led to the rise of right-wing factions.

Lebanon is bracing itself for decisive parliamentary elections in June in which Hezbollah and its allies backed by Iran and Syria will face a Western-backed coalition of Sunni, Christian and Druze factions.

On Sunday, one person died from his wounds after violent clashes erupted the day before between Hezbollah supporters and those of the Western-backed group.

-- Raed Rafei in Beirut