Death of Nasrallah: Iran’s options range from ‘unattractive’ to ‘unpalatable’

FRANCE 24 English

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

Transcript

00:00Ali Vayez is the director of the Iran Research Program at the International Crisis Group

00:06in Washington.

00:07He joins us for more now.

00:09What can we expect?

00:11What's the next action we could expect from Iran in this?

00:16Well, Iran's options now range from unattractive to unpalatable, really, because Hezbollah

00:24was always supposed to be the shield to protect Iran against Israel and the United States.

00:30But now Iran is in a situation that if it wants to protect whatever remains of Hezbollah,

00:37it risks exactly that, ending up in a war against much more conventionally powerful

00:44militaries like Israel and the United States.

00:48Now, Iran's Supreme Leader, Jalal Khamenei, has called for a strong response and also

00:53called on Muslims to stand by the people of Lebanon and Hezbollah.

00:58And what did he mean by stand by Hezbollah with whatever means?

01:04Look, I think it's really just empty rhetoric, because if it is a call for jihad of all Muslims

01:12coming out and standing up to Israel, there is clearly no appetite for that anywhere.

01:17Israel has proven to be stopping at nothing in order to reestablish security in the north.

01:26And nobody is as well organized as Hezbollah.

01:31And already Hezbollah has been taken by surprise with this kind of shock and awe operation

01:36that we have seen from the Israelis.

01:40And therefore, I think there is a degree of disarray.

01:43If there is to be any kind of retaliation, it will have to come from whatever capabilities

01:49Hezbollah still has.

01:51The question is whether it can, in the short run, be able to put its house in order, get

01:56its act together, and use its capabilities.

02:00Because deterrence in general is about your ability to use some of the capabilities that

02:06you have, otherwise you would lose them.

02:08And this is really that moment, both for Iran and Hezbollah.

Category

Transcript

Recommended