WarSclerotic

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday that he would not comment on a recent Bulgarian report finding that members of the Lebanese terrorist group carried out an attack that killed five Israeli tourists last summer, saying only that the “issue is being followed calmly and closely.”

Speaking to hundreds of supporters via video link, Nasrallah said Israel had already accused his terrorist group of being behind the attack before the Bulgarian report was released.

Nasrallah also warned the Jewish state against attacking Lebanon, saying Hezbollah’s response would be harsh.

The July 18 bombing at an airport in Bulgaria’s Black Sea resort of Burgas killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver.

As well as the bomber, who was also killed and whose identity has not been established, two other men are suspected of involvement in the attack. The names of the two other suspects, who are believed to still be alive, have not been made public.

The European Union, of which Bulgaria is a member, regards Hezbollah as a legitimate political organization and has resisted calls to blacklist the group or declare it a terrorist organization.

Nasrallah’s speech marked the anniversary of the death of three Hezbollah leaders, including top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bomb in the Syrian capital of Damascus in 2008. Hezbollah blamed Israel for Mughniyeh’s death and vowed to avenge him.

Nasrallah warned that anyone who thinks Hezbollah is vulnerable because of Syria’s civil war is mistaken. He also said that the group had all the weapons it needed in case war broke out with Israel, and it would not need to import them from allies Syria and Iran.

“The resistance will not be silent regarding any aggression against Lebanon,” Nasrallah said. He added that Hezbollah had the capability to strike at Israel’s “ports, airports and power stations.”

“A few missiles would plunge Israel into darkness,” Nasrallah said, referring to plans to attack power stations. “Can Israel survive six months in the dark?”

Nasrallah threatened to cover Israel in missiles “from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat,” referring to towns in Israel’s northern and southern extremes.

Meanwhile, the leader of a four-member Hamas delegation expelled from Bulgaria last week has accused Israel of pressuring Bulgaria to kick the Palestinians out of the country.

Salah Bardawil made the remarks Saturday after arriving in Cairo en route back to the Gaza Strip, where the Islamist terrorist group Hamas holds power. He offered no evidence to back up his claim.

Calls to Israeli officials went unanswered.

Bulgaria expelled the men Friday, saying they represented “a serious threat to national security.”

Bulgaria’s interior minister said the men arrived on valid visas but on ones issued “on different motives from those they demonstrated here.”

Bardawil said the delegation met with media and some political figures during the visit.