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Iranian official to Israel: Stop Gaza attacks or risk ‘huge earthquake’

Updated October 14, 2023 - 8:34 pm

BEIRUT — Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Israel to stop its counterattack on Hamas terrorists, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that such an escalation would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake.”

Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group — which, like Hamas, is backed by Iran and recognized as a terrorist group by the United States and other nations around the world — has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its campaign to eradicate Hamas in Gaza as soon as possible.

Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating the Iranian proxy has some 150,000 rockets, including precision-guided missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel. The group, which has thousands of battle-hardened fighters who participated in Syria’s 12-year conflict, also has different types of military drones.

Iran, considered by the U.S. to be the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, has long called for the destruction of Israel.

With an eye toward Hezbollah, President Joe Biden has warned other players in the Middle East not to join the conflict and has sent American warships to the region and vowed full support for Israel. Diplomats are working to avoid the creation of new fronts in the war.

Hezbollah fighters have been on full alert along Lebanon’s borders with Israel following the savage Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists that left some 1,300 Israeli civilians and soldiers dead.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said an Israeli drone strike along the border with Lebanon killed a “cell” that was trying to infiltrate Israel. On Friday, Hezbollah said its fighters fired several rockets at four Israel positions along the border.

On Saturday afternoon, Hezbollah fighters fired a barrage of rockets and shells at Israeli positions in the disputed Chebaa Farms. Israeli troops fired back on nearby areas in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s state news agency reported that a man and his wife were killed by Israeli shelling of a border village, while Hezbollah said one of its fighters was also killed Saturday.

Amirabdollahian discussed in Beirut on Saturday the situation in Gaza and the region with the top Hamas official in exile, Saleh Arouri, and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, Ziad Nakhaleh, according to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV.

Hamas officials repeatedly have said that the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel was the work of the Palestinian group and that Iran had nothing to do with it. Hamas officials did not respond to calls by The Associated Press to confirm and give details about the meeting.

Amirabdollahian left Beirut on Saturday afternoon after a tour that took him to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, where Tehran enjoys wide influence.

Amirabdollahian said he met Friday with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who briefed him on the group’s conditions in Lebanon.

“I know about the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place,” Amirabdollahian said. “Any step the resistance (Hezbollah) will take will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity.”

Amirabdollahian added: “I want to warn the war criminals and those who support this entity before it’s too late to stop the crimes against civilians in Gaza, because it might be too late in few hours.”

The Iranian foreign minister said he will be contacting U.N. officials in the Middle East because “there is still an opportunity to work on an initiative (to end the war), but it might be too late tomorrow.”

The possibility of war with Lebanon brings back bitter memories of a vicious monthlong war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 that ended in a stalemate and a tense detente between the two sides.

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