Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: "We do not want a war, but we do not fear it.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah has delivered a bloodcurdling warning to Israel that the Islamist terrorist organization will attack at any time and in any manner it deems fit – but the group’s strategic weakness suggests that his words will be difficult to back up with actual deeds.

Nasrallah made his remarks during a speech commemorating the “Resistance’s Martyrs in Quneitra,” in the wake of an Israeli strike on the Golan Heights on January 18 that left six Hezbollah members and an Iranian general dead, Naharnet reported.

“The resistance no longer recognizes the rules of engagement and it has the right to respond to the enemy at any time or place,” Nasrallah said. “From now on, if any member of Hezbollah is assassinated, then we will blame it on Israel and reserve the right to respond to it whenever and however we choose.”

The terrorist chieftain sounded a note of caution amid the bluster, however, when he added, “We do not want a war, but we do not fear it.”

Nasrallah then thundered, in a reference to Sunni extremist terrorists: “It is our duty, as we commemorate the martyrs of the resistance, to salute the martyrs of the Lebanese army, who were killed in Ras Baalbek as they were defending the Bekaa against takfiri terrorists, who prove everyday that they are fulfilling the Israeli agenda.”

Israel yesterday demanded the full implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, passed in 2006, which calls for the complete disarmament of Hezbollah. Moreover, many Lebanese analysts agree that the organization is approaching the current tensions from a point of weakness.

“Hezbollah’s statements have become increasingly embarrassing with each Israeli strike on either their own or Assad’s positions,” wrote Hanin Ghaddar on the NOW Lebanon website. “Its rhetoric has changed from a heroic expression of dignity and victory to a more realistic one with redundant phrases such as ‘wisdom’ and ‘the right time.’ But Hezbollah cannot survive without heroism or victory, especially among its supporters, and this has been dragging them to dangerously low levels of popularity.”