Hizbullah official: IDF can't face us

Sheikh Nabil Kaouk tells Iranian news agency Israel not capable of fighting his party; says, 'It will take the Israeli army a long time to rehabilitate its military and morale ability before it will be ready for another war with Hizbullah'
Dudi Cohen

Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, Hizbullah's leader in south Lebanon said on Tuesday that the IDF does not have the ability to face his party another time.

In an interview with IRNA Iranian news agency toward the anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, Kaouk said, "It will take the Israeli army a long time to rehabilitate its military and morale ability before it will be ready for another war with Hizbullah."

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Mocking the Israel Defense Forces, Kaouk said, "Now, following the Winograd Commission's report, the level of shame and the fragility of the Zionist soldiers are more obvious than ever."

According to Kaouk, the war's results are a failure and shame to Israel and the United States, who "still aim for a different Middle East".

Kaouk continued to compare the current situation in Lebanon to the situation before the war. "Lebanon, Hizbullah and the region have entered a new phase and the Israel of back then is completely different from post-war Israel," he said.

"Each day this regime experiences more repercussions of that war, of the failure and the shame. Not a day goes by that they don't blame the Israeli generals or they (the generals) resign," he added.

Speaking of the United States, Kaouk said, "With the end of the war, the foreign powers supporting Israel began political and PR assaults against Hizbullah, in order to achieve the goals that they could not achieve in a military war."

"From a military point of view the resistance is that of fighting until victory, and even today Hizbullah is busy with a political war against what is left of the United State's plan for the Middle East," Kaouk added.

According to Kaouk, the results of the war investigations in Israel proved that Israel had prepared for a war last summer in order to take revenge on Lebanon and Hizbullah for the 2000 kidnapping. "The kidnapping of the two soldiers foiled that plan," he said.

"This was the first time that Israel was surprised by war with an Arab country, experienced fear and its home front attacked with missiles…The failure Hizbullah gave the IDF caused Israel to agree to a ceasefire and retreat from Lebanon running," he said.

"This subject is what led to accusations of incompetence of senior commanders in Israel which ultimately led to (former) IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz's resignation."