Hezbollah parliamentary leader Mohammed Raad told Lebanese lawmakers on Saturday that he could destroy the State of Israel for $9 billion, claiming that there would be “no such thing” as Israel.
Raad’s remarks were shared by MTV Lebanon News over the weekend.
#محمد_رعد: تكفي المقاومة 9 مليارات دولار كي لا يبقى هناك شيء اسمه إسرائيل https://t.co/hYGRKvMlp3 pic.twitter.com/TD39xCHtlQ
— MTV Lebanon News (@MTVLebanonNews) April 16, 2022
“The resistance is enough for $9 billion so that there is no such thing as Israel left,” Raad said (English translation).
Raad has also recently spoken against the U.S., blaming America for Lebanon’s economic crisis.
“What bankrupted the Lebanese and plunged them into the latest economic and financial crisis is the U.S. domination, which wanted to besiege the resistance and failed to do so,” Raad said in early April, according to Lebanese news site Naharnet.
“It then sought to besiege all state institutions, which could not bear the siege, so they collapsed and became a burden on people, our resistant environment and the resistance,” he added.
Michael Young, an expert on Lebanese political movements, provided a strong critique of Raad’s accusations against the U.S.
“What bankrupted Lebanon was a vampirical, kleptocratic political class that Hezbollah has been defending, at times through violence, since the protests of 2019. Mohammed Raad is not going to fool anyone about this,” Young wrote.
Hezbollah has served as a proxy for Iran in attacks against Israel. The strong words come as the U.S. and other nations discuss a restart of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a move that could also increase available funding for proxies like Hezbollah.
One sticking point in discussions with Iran has been America’s listing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization. Iran has argued the group should be removed from the list as a prerequisite for ongoing negotiations.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, affirmed his view of the IRGC during a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting earlier in April.
“In my personal opinion, I believe the IRGC Quds Force to be a terrorist organization, and I do not support them being delisted,” he said.
During an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on April 6, Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted there are still concerns that could keep plans from moving forward with Iran regarding any nuclear deal.
“I’m not going to get into the details of where we are on the negotiations. I would say simply that I’m not overly optimistic at the prospects of actually getting an agreement to conclusion, despite all the efforts we put into it and despite the fact that I believe we would be – our security would be better off. We’re not there,” Blinken said during the interview.