Hezbollah Warns Of Wider Conflict

Hezbollah guerrillas, who have largely held their fire since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon a year ago, have warned they will renew attacks against Israel if it invades Palestinian territories.

"An (Israeli) invasion of the Palestinian areas will lead to a flare-up in the entire region," Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told Hezbollah TV Thursday night.

"If a war erupts in the region, this war will not be in Israel's favor ... We will not abandon the Palestinian people and we will be with them in this battle. This is an ideological and religious commitment," the Shiite Muslim cleric said during a nearly three-hour call-in show on Hezbollah's Al Manar TV.

Israel has threatened retaliatory strikes against Palestinian areas after last week's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed 20 young Israelis and the bomber. It was the deadliest Mideast terror attack in five years.

But eight months of violence have subsequently subsided after cease-fire calls by both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Hezbollah led the war against Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended last May. The militant group, whose fighters control the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, says it has hundreds of rockets with a range of 14 miles inside Israel.

Since the withdrawal, Hezbollah has fired no rockets into Israel. But the guerrillas have killed three and captured other three Israeli soldiers in the disputed Chebaa Farms area and denied Israeli accusations they were operating in Palestinian territories.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah maintains an "old relationship and coordination" with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two militant Islamic Palestinian groups that have carried out a series of deadly suicide bomb attacks in Israel.

He urged Palestinians to continue the fight against the Jewish state and Arab and Islamic states to provide them with help.

"We are helping the (Palestinian uprising) as much as we can," Nasrallah said, adding Hezbollah "will not be late" in providing "a different kind" of military assistance.

He did not elaborate, saying only, "We are constantly consulting with (Palestinian) leaderships and forces which are participating in the intefadeh," or the uprising.

Nasrallah reported slow progress in negotiations through foreign intermediaries to swap the three Israeli soldiers and a reserve colonel lured and captured in Beirut with an unspecified number of Lebanese and other Arab prisoners in Israel.

"If we reach the point where we consider that the four (Israeli prisoners) we have are not enough and that more are needed, then this matter will become a priority for us," Nasrallah said.

He reiterated Hezbollah's demands that any prisoner swap must include the release of all Lebanese, other Arab, Palestinian and Iranian prisoners held in Israel.

He said four Iranians, who vanished in 1982 during Israel's invasion of Lebanon, must be included in any exchangeIran, which backs Hezbollah, also accuses Israel of holding the four men, including two diplomats. Israel denies the claim.

Lebanon says Israel holds 13 Lebanese, including two Hezbollah leaders.

In addition, Palestinian and Arab groups have given Hezbollah lists of more than 1,500 prisoners they want released in any swap.

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