Beirut - Lebanon's pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement dismissed the possibility of any Israeli military incursions into Lebanon or the wider region, but added that the movement is more prepared than before to confront any possible attack. "The Israelis, unlike what is being said, are not ready for any field battle," Hezbollah's international relations official Nawaf Moussawi was quoted as saying by Hezbollah's al Nour radio station on Tuesday.
"The resistance in Lebanon is more ready than the Israeli army to engage in a military battle," Moussawi added.
Moussawi said Hezbollah rules out any attack on the region "because all nations are preoccupied with internal affairs," pointing to upcoming political events in the United States, Iran, Israel and Lebanon.
Moussawi, however, said just because Hezbollah does not expect any attacks, that does not mean it is not ready to fight.
He was referring to comments made Monday by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak that the Lebanese Hezbollah movement now had three times as many missiles as before the 2006 Lebanon war.
Barak told members of the Israeli parliament that some of Hezbollah's 42,000 missiles could reach the southern Israeli towns of Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona, more than 200 kilometres from the Lebanese border. That would put large portions of Israel within the range of Hezbollah's missiles.
Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel during a 33-day Israeli incursion into Lebanon in 2006, killing some 40 civilians.
More than 1,125 Lebanese, most of them civilians, died in Israeli attacks during that conflict.
The war started with a border incursion by Hezbollah on July 12, 2006. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two others kidnapped, prompting a massive Israeli retaliation.
