Hizbullah welcomes World War lll

September 5, 2006

“We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year,” said Iranian Hizbullah’s spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli. “They have been trained, and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardize Israel and America’s interests. We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader’s green light to take action.  If America wants to ignite World War III…we welcome it,” he said.

Iran’s Hizbullah (“party of god”) says it is spiritually bound to Shi’ite Muslim guerrillas in Lebanon, but its command structure and funding are unclear. Despite Iranian Hizbullah’s insistence that it takes orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei [who is above President Ahmadinejad in power and has control over the military], government ministries say Hizbullah does not implement official policy. Iran’s government has said it hopes for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

While Iran did fund and support Lebanese Hizbullah during the 1980s, Tehran says it has not contributed troops or weapons in the latest violence. Israel, however, says Iranian armaments have been fired against it.

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