Hezbollah Ldr To Give Speech; Follows Hit On Snr Hamas Figure In Beirut

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is set to deliver a televised address to the people of Lebanon at around 1800 local time (1100ET, 1600GMT, 1700CET) to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Iran's Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani on orders from former US President Donald Trump. There is major international focus on whether Nasrallah indicates an escalation in Hezbollah actions against Israel or maintains the current stance.

• This comes after the targeted drone strike in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on 2 Jan, that killed Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, and two other commanders from its armed wing.
• While Israeli forces have not claimed responsibility for the strike, there is the prospect that Hezbollah will view the actions as requiring a robust response from its own military arsenal. The Times of Israel reportsthat in an August speech, Nasrallah declared that “Any assassination on Lebanese soil against a Lebanese Syrian, Iranian or Palestinian will be met with a decisive response. We will not tolerate this, and we will not allow Lebanon to become a new killing field for Israel.”
• Emile Hokayem, Director for Regional Security and Senior Fellow for Middle East Security for the International Institute for Strategic Studiesposts on Xregarding the prospects of a wider conflagration between Israel and Hezbollah.