The mayor of Haifa in northern Israel said on Wednesday that he is grateful for threats made by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to attack the city’s ammonia facility.
In 2006, Israel fought a war with Hizbullah in Lebanon, but when Nasrallah said Tuesday that “several of our rockets combined with the ammonia storage facility in Haifa will create the effect of a nuclear weapon,” the local mayor seized the opportunity to highlight his city’s environmental problems.
Yona Yahav said “we are happy for help” in putting the environmental issue on the agenda, “even if it arrives from a frightened man hiding in his bunker.”
He said Haifa faces environmental threats from the ammonia facility and an oil refinery.
Israel’s environment ministry claimed, however, that it plans to move the facility to southern Israel.
Nasrallah also warned Tuesday that “the resistance has the ability to cover the entirety of occupied Palestine with missiles.”
“When Israel knows that there is a force in Lebanon that can prevent it from achieving a quick victory, it will not engage in war,” he said.
Israel’s top general said, however, that the military has “effective deterrence” against Hizbullah.
Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot spoke after Nasrallah threatened to attack the ammonia storage facility.
Eisenkot said Hizbullah is Israel’s most formidable adversary, but that for ten years Israel’s border with Lebanon has been its quietest frontier.
Source
Associated Press
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/202361-israeli-mayor-happy-for-help-from-nasrallah-threats