Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Wednesday that "no one" would be allowed to operate in maritime oil and gas fields if Lebanon was barred from its "rights" in extracting from areas off of its own coast.
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"If you don't give us the rights that our state is asking for ... then we could flip the table on everyone," Nasrallah said in a televised address. Going to war would be more honorable if the other choice is for the Lebanese to starve," he said.
"If you want to get to a formula where this country is barred from taking advantage [of these fields], then no one will be allowed to extract gas or oil and no one will be able to sell gas or oil," Nasrallah said.
Lebanon is locked in US-mediated negotiations with Israel to delineate a shared maritime border that would help determine which oil and gas resources belong to which country.
Israel has already begun work at the Karish oil field through a vessel operated by London-based Energean.
On July 2, Iran-backed Hezbollah launched three unarmed drones toward the vessel, which Israel intercepted.
Nasrallah said it was the "first time" such an attack had taken place and that it was meant to alert workers aboard the vessel that it "is not a safe area."
"We wanted the Israelis to shoot down the drones through warplanes and ships because we wanted to witness gunfire in that area," he said.
He hinted at further attacks, saying his group has military capacities on land, in the air and at sea, and could deploy a "large number" of weaponized drones simultaneously.
"The new equation is, Karish, what's beyond Karish, and what's beyond, beyond Karish," Nasrallah continued, echoing a statement he made a few weeks before the Second Lebanon War in 2006 when he threatened "Haifa and beyond Haifa."
Wednesday marked the 16-year anniversary of the start of the 2006 conflict.
Nasrallah also insisted that Lebanon had a "golden opportunity" in the next two months to secure its maritime rights before Israel completed work at Karish.
"The message of the drones meant that we are serious and we are not after a psychological war but we are gradually moving in our steps," Nasrallah said. He also urged Lebanese officials to take advantage of his group's strength to use it in indirect talks, saying Hezbollah was Lebanon's "only strong point."
"The resistance is telling you, make use of me. Take advantage of me... Tell the Americans that these guys don't answer to anyone, they're uncontrollable – say whatever you want. Say it," Nasrallah said.
He added that "whatever we are supposed to do, we will without any hesitation. This message was understood by the Israelis and by the Americans."
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Nasrallah refused to comment on the Lebanese caretaker prime minister's criticism of Hezbollah for sending the drones. Najib Mikati said at the time it was an unnecessarily risky action.
"Whether our message was understood in Lebanon or not, we don't care about that. What is important for us is that the enemy gets the message," he said.
Israel considers the Lebanese terrorist group its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.
'US is old and frail'
"Another one of the [Second Lebanon War's] many achievements is creating an equation of deterrence between Lebanon and the Israeli enemy," Nasrallah continued. "All the Israelis realize that [Defense Minister] Benny Gantz's words about entering Lebanon are null and void."
"There was a US project to take control of the region through direct military intervention, but the resistance and Lebanon's resilience and the objectives of the [Second Lebanon War] dealt a heavy blow to the new Middle East project," he said.
"There are new versions of the new Middle East project ... and US President Joe Biden's visit to the Middle East comes in this context," he added.
"The United States today is different from the 2003 and 2006 United States ... The image of the old, frail American president represents what America is today," Nasrallah underlined.
Commenting on the goals of Biden's Middle East visit, the Hezbollah chief stressed that Biden came to the region with two goals: persuading the Gulf states to export more oil and gas, and "enhancing Israel's security and emphasizing normalization."
"The Americans' first, decisive mission in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian War is securing an alternative to the Russian gas for Europe ... and the United States is fighting Russia using the Ukrainian government, armed forces, and people, and it dragged all of the European countries [into the war]."
JNS.org contributed to this report.
