ADDS STATEMENT BY THE IRANIAN EMBASSY IN BEIRUT
By Wassim Seifeddine
BEIRUT (AA) – Hezbollah on Friday unveiled "Imad 4," a massive missile complex with long subterranean tunnels and massive rocket launchers.
Hezbollah’s media wing released a short video of over four minutes showcasing the Imad 4 facility.
The footage highlighted the scale of the underground installation, which includes large rocket launchers and military equipment housed in vast tunnels.
The video also showed Hezbollah members riding motorcycles through the tunnels.
Hezbollah says the facility is “not only concealed from enemy (Israeli) reconnaissance capabilities but also providing protection against potential attacks.”
The video includes a statement from Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who said that "resistance rockets cover all of Palestinian territory from Kiryat Shmona in the north to Eilat in the south."
The video also featured an image of Imad Mughniyeh, the party's military leader, who was assassinated in Syria in 2008 and succeeded by Fouad Shukr, who was killed by Israel in Beirut on July 30 of this year.
Separately, the Iranian Embassy in Beirut commented on the video, claiming that it could attack Israel “from any location” in Iran.
In a statement, it said: "In Persian, we call the missile installations located underground and inside rocks and mountains ‘missile cities'."
“These missile cities are located all over the Iranian territory, and they strike terror into the hearts of Iran’s enemies,” it added, noting that “if necessary, we can attack the enemy from any location in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Fears have grown of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah amid an exchange of cross-border attacks.
The escalation comes against the backdrop of a deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 people since last October, since an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
* Writing by Ikram Kouachi