Nasrallah: Hezbollah will 'deal with Cyprus as a warring party'

Head of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah threatened in a Wednesday speech to treat Cyprus "as if it is a party to the war" with Israel if it allowed the latter to use its airports and harbours.

Nasrallah drew attention to the fact that the Israeli army conducts drills in Cyprus, as well as is in discussions with the Cypriot government to use its airports and harbours in the event of a war with Lebanon.

The Israeli army has conducted training drills in the Trodos mountains of Cyprus since 2017, in part to simulate an invasion of Lebanon, given the similar topography of the two areas.

Nasrallah said that he instructed the Lebanese government to ask the Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides if it would let Israel use its bases during a war, something Christodoulides denied.

His warning came to Cyprus came alongside a greater threat to open up the Mediterranean Sea into a battlefield against Israel if the latter started a full-scale war in Lebanon.

"If they open a war in Lebanon, the situation in the Mediterranean Sea will be completely different … the entity knows it cannot defend its coastline, its harbours," Nasrallah said.

The speech followed the publishing of a video on Tuesday which showed extensive footage of sensitive civilian and military sites in Haifa filmed by a Hezbollah drone.

The fact that a Hezbollah drone was able to spend such a prolonged period of time deep within Israeli territory and return to Lebanon without triggering Israeli air defences provoked surprise in Israel.

It followed what has been a steady unveiling of advanced weaponry not previously known to be included in Hezbollah’s arsenal, including the use of anti-aircraft missiles.

Hezbollah has gradually used more advanced technology since the cross-border clashes between it and Israel started in the wake of Hamas's 7 October surprise attack.

Nasrallah said on Wednesday that it produces drones and some of its missiles in Lebanon, and that Iranian resupplies are still safely reaching it via Syria, despite Israeli attempts to disrupt this flow.

He added that Hezbollah has more weaponry that it has yet to use.

Israeli officials in recent weeks have escalated rhetoric as Hezbollah's attack in northern Israel grow bolder. On Tuesday night said they had approved an “operational plan” for an offensive in Lebanon.

Over 100,000 Israeli residents have been displaced from their homes in the north since October, putting pressure on the Israeli government to restore calm along the border.

Nasrallah said on Tuesday that Hezbollah did not want a full-scale war with Israel, but instead was fighting to put pressure on Israel to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, he threatened that if Israel were to start a war in Lebanon, that "there will be no place in the territory of the enemy [Israel] that will not be reached by our missiles."

He further claimed that the Lebanese group has a "complete bank of targets" in Israel.