Hezbollah may have biological or chemical weapons, according to a top Arab pundit.
Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said in a speech last week that, should Israel again go to war in Lebanon, it would face a “surprise that will change the fate of the region”.
The unspecified threat prompted Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, to argue at the weekend that the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia may have weapons of mass-destruction.
“Nasrallah is a person who does not lie,” Atwan wrote in the influential London-based daily.
Noting that Hezbollah’s arsenal of thousands of rockets, and its willingness to use them against Israel, became manifest facts during last year’s Lebanon war, Atwan said that “from an initial examination it can be understood that these rockets, or part of them, can be outfitted with chemical or biological warheads”.
“Just as Hezbollah did not hesitate to attack the Israeli hinterland with rockets, it would not be surprising or unusual if he were to employ weapons of mass-destruction in a new confrontation,” added Atwan.
Hezbollah did not respond to the article. Israeli officials have not publicly speculated on the nature of Nasrallah’s threat, made on the anniversary of the August 14, 2006 ceasefire that ended the Lebanon war.
