Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah said the terrorist organization would respond for Israel's assassination of one of its operatives in Syria last month, according to a translation by Lebanon and Hezbollah analyst David A. Daoud.
"On July 20, the Israelis killed Hezbollah fighter Ali Kamel Mohsen," Nasrallah said.
41-Nasrallah: So, everything that has been done since July 20 until today -- IDF high alert, etc. -- part of the punishment we are inflicting. If you kill us, it means across the border you must await our response. This decision remains standing, nothing changed, matter of time.
— David A. Daoud (@DavidADaoud) August 14, 2020
"They knew Hezbollah would respond. We did not need to say anything, and they implemented all security precautions to protect their soldiers' lives and prevent a Hezbollah response," he continued.
"Hezbollah will respond, but it will be to re-establish rules of engagement. So the response will be studied and measured. Only serious, calculated action -- not media stunts -- re-establish rules of engagement."
Everything that happened since the assassination is part of Hezbollah's "punishment," Nasrallah said.
"If you kill us - it means across the border - you must await our response," he added. "This decision remains standing. Nothing changed, it is a matter of time."Nasrallah also spoke about the historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that was announced on Thursday. He criticized the UAE and said its ambassador was working for "the Americans and the Zionist-Jewish lobby.""So, when UAE ambassador to US says a few weeks ago, "we fought Hezbollah," he is ingratiating himself to the Americans and the Zionist-Jewish lobby," he said.Despite his criticism, later in the speech, Nasrallah said that "we weren't surprised by UAE decision, various forms of Israeli-UAE normalization, cooperation were already underway for a long time. But seems need for such an announcement was an American one, because normalization between Israel/UAE was already underway."He called the deal a "betrayal of Islam, Arabness, of the Palestinian people."He also said it should be "expected" that by the US presidential elections in November, there will be more Arab countries signing treaties with Israel.