Hezbollah: Syria 'was ready to join Lebanon war'

Syria was prepared to enter last summer's war between the Lebanese group of Hezbollah and Israel, but the group did not favour such a move, the group's leader said last night.

In an interview with the Qatari-based Al Jazeera satellite TV station broadcast last night, Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah told the TV channel: "The Israelis took the Syrian participation into consideration, and didn't move on the axis that might necessitate a Syrian action."

The interview, telecast on the anniversary of the 33-Israeli war on Lebanon.

Nasrallah said: "In July and August 2006, there wasn't a place in occupied Palestine that the rockets of the resistance could not reach, be it Tel Aviv or other cities."

During the war, Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel during the conflict.