The Israel-Lebanon border area. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Lebanon will emerge victorious in any future conflict with Israel, the Cedar Republic’s foreign minister, Gebran Bassil, claimed in an interview published on Friday.

Speaking with the Russian government-funded RT media outlet, Bassil — the 47-year-old Maronite Christian head of the Free Patriotic Movement — stated, “We should not be provoking Israel into a war simply because it is likely to lose it. We should restrain Israel from starting a war exactly because Lebanon is sure to win it.”

Bassil went on to warn there would be “consequences for the whole region…[and] for Europe” if Hezbollah — the Iran-backed Shia terrorist group that is headquartered in Beirut and is part of the Lebanese government — was attacked by outside parties.

According to Bassil, Lebanon is able to counter “any threat” it faces.

Lebanon is on a knife’s edge following the recent resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the launch of a missile from Yemen at Riyadh — an “act of war” that Saudi Arabia blamed on Hezbollah.

In an interview published on Thursday by the Saudi newspaper Elaph, the head of the Israeli military, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, said the IDF had no intention of initiating an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and accused Iran of seeking to escalate tensions there.