Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri warned that the Lebanese government would officially back the Hizbullah terrorists in the event of another war with Israel and claimed that the Jewish State was threatening both Lebanon and Syria.
Hariri also complained in an interview published early Wednesday by the British Broadcasting System (BBC) that the Israel Air Force enters Lebanon's air space daily, which he claimed was a “threat” to the country.
“We hear a lot of Israeli threats day in and day out, and not only threats... We see what's happening on the ground and in our air space and what's happening all the time during the past two months,” he said. “Every day we have Israeli planes entering Lebanese air space. This is something that is escalating, and this is something that is really dangerous.
“I think they're betting that there might be some division in Lebanon if there is a war against us. Well, there won't be a division in Lebanon,” he said. “We will stand against Israel. We will stand with our own people.”
The statements are a turnabout for Hariri, in the past a moderate, and son of the assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was anti-Syrian and who was backed by Western nations as well. The current prime minister also leads a coalition of political groups known as the March 14 Alliance, which in 2005 led mass demonstrations and with Western assistance pressured Syria to withdraw from Lebanon after a 29-year occupation.
Earlier this week, Syrian President Bashar Assad assured Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that Damascus would “stand alongside the government and the people of Lebanon against any possible Israeli aggression.” The two men met Sunday in the Syrian capital to discuss “repeated Israeli threats on countries in the region and Israeli extremism which can... bring war to the region”, according to the official SANA news agency.
Hizbullah terrorists have been “importing” weapons from Iran through the Syrian border since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War. The United Nations Resolution 1701 ceasefire agreement was to prevent such activity through deployment of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).