Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Phillip, we've heard a lot, haven't we, about a lot of speculation about Hezbollah's firepower,
00:04people saying that it's much, much larger than that of Hamas.
00:08What do we actually know? What are the facts?
00:10Well, it's very difficult to actually put a figure on that firepower
00:15and the number of fighters that are under the control of Hezbollah,
00:19but if you go on the internet and you look around on different websites,
00:22either in Israel or Wikipedia or from the United States, you can get some kind of an idea.
00:27$700 million annually is the figure which has been put forward by the US.
00:30That's basically Iranian monetary support, the main backers of Hezbollah.
00:35Between 20,000 and 65,000 fighters, about 20,000 full-time fighters plus reservists,
00:42between 40,000 and 120,000 missiles, plus also limited numbers of anti-aircraft,
00:48anti-ship missiles and thousands of anti-tank missiles,
00:52which in general terms means that Hezbollah is much better equipped militarily
00:59than most normal countries in the world.
01:01So that's why it's not really interesting for Israel to launch a full-scale ground invasion
01:06or a full-scale conflict. And as I was just saying, it's supported Hezbollah by Iran.
01:11Iran has been pretty quiet all the way through this conflict because it doesn't want to get involved.
01:15It doesn't want to get ruffled by the United States,
01:18which could threaten to cause trouble in Iran.
01:22Iran wants to keep hold of its nuclear program.
01:25So it's not being particularly vociferous as far as supporting Hezbollah
01:30or being outright in its support of Hezbollah is concerned during this conflict.
01:34But that, of course, all could change very quickly.
01:36The big question, I think, Stuart, right now is where does this leave the United States?
01:41What role is the United States playing in trying to bring all this to an end?
01:44I think that there's a feeling in Israel that Joe Biden's time at the White House
01:47is pretty much over, that they've got a green card because the U.S. will always support Israel.
01:53As we've heard dozens of times, Israel has the right to defend itself.
01:56Those weapons are still coming in to protect Israel.
01:58They can be used in this conflict.
02:00And I think Benjamin Netanyahu is biding his time
02:03because if Donald Trump wins the election and gets to the White House,
02:06that will be a much more positive development for the Israeli prime minister.
02:11So we're in a wait-and-see situation in Israel over what is happening in the United States.
02:16I think the U.S. is far too focused on the upcoming election campaign,
02:21putting the pressure on Israel really onto a back burner.
02:25And that's sort of giving the Israeli authorities the green card they need
02:28to go ahead and push forward with this offensive against Hezbollah.
02:31Philip, thanks so much. Philip Taylor, International Affairs Editor there in Forens24.