Hezbollah chief threatens to target Israeli nuke plant

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) - Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday called on Israel to dismantle its Dimona nuclear reactor, threatening to target the facility with rockets if Israel failed to comply.

"I urge the enemy [Israel] to shut its ammonia tank in Haifa and dismantle its Dimona nuclear reactor [in the Negev Desert]," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

"The enemy knows what will happen if our rockets strike this reactor," he added.

The Hezbollah chief went on to assert that Israel’s reactor "can be turned into an opportunity [by the resistance] and threaten the occupiers, invaders and [Israeli] settlers themselves".

On Sunday, an Israeli court gave the Haifa Chemicals Company, which owns Haifa’s 12,000-ton ammonia tank, 10 days to shut the facility down.

The ammonia produced in the tank can be used to manufacture fertilizer and explosives.

According to Nasrallah, striking the tank with a rocket barrage would "have the effect of a nuclear bomb".

He went on to rule out the possibility of an imminent Israeli war on Lebanon "given the current balance of power".