http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=

6-07-19T005545Z_01_OLI848020_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-IRAN-HIZBOLLAH.xml

Iran's Hizbollah says ready to attack US, Israel

Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:56 PM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese
group of the same name, said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack
Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide.

"We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year," said
Iranian Hizbollah's spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli, speaking by telephone
from the central seminary city of Qom.

"They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready
to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardise 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 Three ... we
welcome it," he said.

Iranian religious organisations have made great public show of
recruiting volunteers for "martyrdom-seeking operations" in recent
years, usually threatening U.S. interests in case of any attack against
the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.

But there is no record of an Iranian volunteer from these recruitment
campaigns taking part in an attack.

Iran's Hizbollah (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 Hizbollah's insistence that it takes orders from
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, government ministries say Hizbollah
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 Hizbollah during the 1980s,
Tehran says it has not contributed troops or weapons in the latest
violence. Israel says Iranian armaments have been fired against it.

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hooroo

uncle wally

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