KEY POINTS:
DUBAI - Hizbollah's missiles can reach any spot in Israel, the Lebanese guerrilla group's chief said in remarks aired yesterday, months after the United Nations beefed up its peacekeeping force in south Lebanon.
About 1,200 Lebanese and 157 Israelis were killed in a 34-day war between the Iran-backed group and Israel which began after Hizbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006.
"In July and August (2006), there was no place in occupied Palestine which was out of the reach of the resistance missiles," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told Al Jazeera television.
"Tel Aviv or elsewhere, we were certain that we could reach any corner or spot in occupied Palestine and now we are certain that we can reach them," Nasrallah said.
Jazeera said Nasrallah was speaking in an interview which it will air on Monday. The context of his remarks was not clear from the excerpts it broadcast.
The UN peacekeeper force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, was expanded as part of an Aug. 14 truce between Israel and Hizbollah and says its mandate is to ensure the group does not have a military presence south of the Litani river.
Lebanese security and political sources said in May that Hizbollah had replenished its rocket arsenal and received improved anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles from Iran via Syria since a UN-backed truce halted hostilities in August.
Israel and the United States accuse Syria and Iran of arming, training and funding Hizbollah. Syria and Iran say their support to the Shi'ite anti-Israel faction is purely political.
The Beirut government says it has no proof of arms transfers from Syria since August.
Israel has complained about Hizbollah's resupply effort but analysts have said the group has rearmed since last year's war but had little interest in provoking a new one.
Lebanon deployed regular forces along the frontier as part of the UN-brokered ceasefire that ended the war. The border has been largely quiet since then.
- REUTERS
