UN chief warns Israel-Hezbollah war would be ‘worst nightmare’

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned of the devastating consequences of a fresh war between Israel and Hezbollah, calling such a scenario a “worst nightmare.”

The statement by Guterres came as tensions between Israel and the Lebanese terror group have ramped up in recent weeks over Iran’s efforts to entrench itself along Israel’s border and a maritime dispute over offshore gas fields.

“The worst nightmare would be if there is a direct confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah… the level of destruction in Lebanon would be absolutely devastating, so there are major points of concern around this situation,” Reuters reported Guterres as saying in Portugal, where he was once prime minister.

Guterres said that while both sides have signaled they are not seeking a conflict, “sometimes a spark is enough to unleash this kind of a conflict.”

“I am deeply worried about hard-to-foresee escalations in the whole region,” he said.

The UN chief’s warning came just a day after Hezbollah threatened to target Israel’s Mediterranean natural gas rigs in a future conflict, the latest in a string of such threats.

The Iran-backed terror group, which has sought to position itself as Lebanon’s vanguard against Israel, released a video that showed what appeared to be drilling platforms floating above Israel’s gas fields with targeting sights superimposed on the images.

The video, aired by Israel’s Hadashot TV news, also included quotes from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who warned Friday that the group would retaliate against any Israeli strike on Lebanon by attacking Israel’s offshore platforms.

“If you attack, we will attack. If you bomb, we will bomb you…. I promise you, within hours [the platform] will cease operating,” Nasrallah said, according to a translation by Hadashot.

Last week, Lebanon issued an offshore oil and gas exploration tender for two areas along the country’s maritime border with Israel, prompting a war of words with Jerusalem, which has laid claim to one of the fields in question.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman called the move “very provocative” and suggested that Lebanon had put out a tender to international groups for a gas field “that is by all accounts ours.”

There are over 300 square miles of waters claimed by both countries, which are technically in a state of conflict. Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

Israeli officials have warned that in a future conflict, the army may not differentiate between Hezbollah and Lebanon. Hezbollah, regarded as a terror group by Israel and the US, is a major player in Lebanon’s government.

Tensions with Lebanon have also escalated over Israel’s construction of a border wall with Lebanon and its warnings that Iran, through Hezbollah, is turning the country into a forward base against the Jewish state.

Israeli authorities allege that Iran is setting up plants to manufacture advanced missiles in Lebanon to be used against Israel. It has vowed to act against the factories.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of “devouring wide swaths of the Middle East” through its proxies, including Hezbollah.

“Israel will not allow Iran’s regime to put a noose of terror around our neck,” he said. “We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act if necessary not just against Iran’s proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself.”

Agencies contributed to this report.