Iranian Hezbollah Threatens US
The Iranian Hezbollah group has openly threatened the United States and Israel with attacks. The Mullahs try to pretend the group does not speak officially.
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide.
"We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year," said Iranian Hizbollah's spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli, speaking by telephone from the central seminary city of Qom.
"They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardise Israel and America's interests. We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three … we welcome it," he said.
Iranian religious organisations have made great public show of recruiting volunteers for "martyrdom-seeking operations" in recent years, usually threatening U.S. interests in case of any attack against the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.
But there is no record of an Iranian volunteer from these recruitment campaigns taking part in an attack.
Iran's Hizbollah (Party of God) says it is spiritually bound to Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas in Lebanon but its command structure and funding are unclear.
Despite Iranian Hizbollah's insistence that it takes orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, government ministries say Hizbollah does not implement official policy. Iran's government has said it hopes for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.
Since it's pretty obvious to everyone who is causing the trouble in the Middle East right now, it's kind of ludicrous that the Mullahs try this little gem. As my son pointed out the other day, Iran is in a de facto state of war with a number of countries right now by virtue of their puppetmaster role in the disturbances all over the Middle East right now. It's especially disingenuous since the Hezbollah representative is mirroring the Iranian president's statements in recent weeks.
UPDATE: And word from the FBI that they are watching for Hezbollah activity in the US.
American law enforcement officials are concerned the Lebanon-based Hizbollah, which has so far focused on fund-raising and other support activities inside the United States, could turn to violence in solidarity with Iran.
"If the situation escalates, will Hizbollah take the gloves off, so to speak, and attack here in the United States, which they've been reluctant to do until now?" said William Kowalski, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Detroit.
Detroit is home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States.
"Because of the heightened difficulties surrounding U.S.-Iranian relations, the FBI has increased its focus on Hizbollah," said FBI spokesman Paul Bresson in Washington.
"Those investigations relate particularly to the potential presence of Hizbollah members on U.S. soil."
It would be a miscalculation of truly epic proportions for Hezbollah to try an attack inside the US.
By Jason, July 18, 2006 @ 4:56 pm
Well, for a few years now the President of Iran has been saying he wants Israel wiped off the map. Now Hizbollah has stated they are ready for WWIII. At some point in time I would hope someone important from the West would take these people at their word.