Hezbollah ready for Israeli offensive

BEIRUT, Sept 30 (AFP/AP): Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem said Monday the Iran-backed group was ready to face any Israeli ground operation, warning that the battle could last a long time.

In a televised address, Qassem also said Hezbollah would choose a new chief "at the earliest opportunity" after Israel killed its leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike on Friday.

Qassem said Hezbollah would continue "confronting the Israeli enemy in support of Gaza and Palestine, in defence of Lebanon and its people, and in response to the assassinations and the killing of civilians".

"We will face any scenario and we are ready if Israel decides to enter by land, the resistance forces are ready for any ground confrontation.

"We know the battle may be long," he said on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel, in first address by a senior Hezbollah leader since Nasrallah's death.

Qassem said Nasrallah was killed while meeting with Iranian General Abbas Nilforoushan and Hezbollah's top commander in southern Lebanon Ali Karake, in the presence of the group leader's head guard and another Hezbollah member close to him.

"We will select a new secretary-general for the party at the earliest opportunity and according to the party's selection mechanism," he said.

EU to hold emergency

talks on Lebanon war

European foreign ministers will hold emergency talks Monday on the situation in Lebanon, Brussels said, as Israel presses on with air strikes after killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

A spokesman said the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had convened a video meeting at 1500 GMT "to discuss the EU's response to the latest escalation in Lebanon".

International powers are scrambling to prevent the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group from spiralling into a broader conflict.

The 27-nation European Union has so far struggled to speak with one voice-or exert much influence-to curb the violence that has roiled the region over the past year.

Israel on Monday carried out its first air strike in the heart of Lebanon's capital Beirut since the outbreak of the war in Gaza last year, killing four people.

That raid was the latest in an aerial campaign that saw Israel kill Hezbollah's long-time chief Nasrallah on Friday in a major ratcheting up of tensions.

Israeli attacks have killed hundreds in Lebanon since last Monday, the deadliest day since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

Saudi Arabia calls for

respecting Lebanon's

sovereignty

Saudi Arabia expressed its "great concern" at the conflict in Lebanon on Monday, calling for the country's "sovereignty and territorial integrity" to be respected.

A foreign ministry statement said: "the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is following with great concern the developments taking place in the Republic of Lebanon."

As the country's health ministry said more than a hundred people had been killed in Israel's strikes on targets across the country on Sunday, Riyadh stressed the need to respect Lebanon's sovereignty.

Israel has carried out several days of deadly strikes on targets in Lebanon.