The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said that Iran could target U.S. bases in the Middle East in response to any Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, even if the U.S. was not directly involved in the attack. Nasrallah stated that a decision had been made in Iran to respond forcefully, and that American bases throughout the region could become targets. He also expressed doubt that Israel would attack Iran in the near future, citing divisions within Israel's government over such a strike and concerns about the economic impact and Israeli casualties. Nasrallah warned, however, that another conflict with Israel would be more deadly than their 2006 war.

1. Iran could strike US bases if
Israel attacks: Hezbollah
By Laila Bassam
BEIRUT | Mon Sep 3, 2012 6:35pm EDT
(Reuters) - Iran could hit U.S. bases in the Middle East in response to any Israeli strike on
its nuclear facilities even if American forces played no role in the attack, the leader of
Lebanon’s Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said on Monday.
“A decision has been taken to respond and the response will be very great,” Hezbollah
Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with the Beirut-based Al
Mayadeen television.
“The response will not be just inside the Israeli entity – American bases in the whole
region could be Iranian targets,” he said, citing information he said was from Iranian
officials. “If Israel targets Iran, America bears responsibility.”

2. Heightened Israeli rhetoric about Tehran’s nuclear facilities, which the West says could
be part of a weapons program, has stoked speculation that it may attack Iran before U.S.
elections in November.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged world powers on Sunday to set a “clear red
line” to convince Iran they would prevent it from obtaining nuclear arms.
Israel, thought to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed power, views Iran’s nuclear
program as a threat to its regional dominance and to its very existence. Tehran says the
atomic work is for peaceful purposes only.
But Netanyahu’s cabinet is divided over the wisdom of attacking Iran, and Israeli officials
have dropped heavy hints of a climbdown strategy, under which Netanyahu would shelve
threats of an attack now in return for a stronger public pledge from President Barack
Obama on conditions that would provoke U.S. action in future.
Nasrallah said there were divisions in Israel over attacking Iran. “Personally I do not
expect the Israeli enemy – at least in the coming months or foreseeable future – (to
wage) an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.
Nasrallah pointed to the fragile global economy, which would be weakened further by
any sharp rise in crude oil prices stemming from conflict in the Gulf, and to likely Israeli
casualties in any war with Iran.
“Netanyahu and (Defence Minister Ehud) Barak inflate the benefit and play down the
cost,” he said, referring to Barak’s estimates that Israel could suffer up to 500 fatalities
in any conflict aimed at wiping out Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Hezbollah guerrillas fought a 34-day war with Israel six years ago in which 1,200 people
in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 people in Israel, mostly soldiers, were killed.
War with Iran would be more deadly, Nasrallah said. “We don’t know what will happen in
the region.”
NO CHEMICAL WEAPONS
He repeated a warning he made last month that Hezbollah could cause widespread
destruction if it came into conflict with Israel again, but denied that the Shi’ite Islamist
guerrilla and political movement would ever use chemical weapons.

3. “We do not have chemical weapons and we will not use chemical weapons,” Nasrallah
said. “The use of chemical weapons is forbidden – for us that is absolute.
Unrest in neighboring Syria, which acknowledged for the first time in July that it
possessed chemical or biological weapons, has led to Western fears that those weapons
might fall into the hands of Islamist groups including Hezbollah.
“I do not need chemical weapons – regardless of the religious or practical position,”
Nasrallah said, addressing Israel. “You have factories, and you have bases, and
compounds, and I have rockets.”
Israel had several “weak points” which could be targeted, including “economic,
industrial, electrical, chemical and nuclear” sites, the Hezbollah leader said.
Even if Israel launched a first strike attack on Lebanon, destroying a large part of
Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, the militant group would retain the capacity to hit back with
deadly force, he added.
Two weeks ago Nasrallah said Hezbollah could kill tens of thousands of Israelis by
hitting targets with what he described as precision-guided missiles.
“Hitting these targets with a small number of rockets will turn … the lives of hundreds
of thousands of Zionists to real hell,” he said at the time.
(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alison Williams)