Hezbollah Says Israel Wages Campaign After Bulgaria Bomb

Israel is behind a campaign of accusation and incitement against Hezbollah, said Naim Qassem, the group’s deputy secretary-general, a day after Bulgaria linked his militant, Iranian-backed group to a bus bombing.

“Israel is leading a campaign at the global level to confront the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine” after it failed to crush it militarily, Qassem was cited as saying by Lebanon’s official National News Agency.

He didn’t refer directly to yesterday’s statement from Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov that his country had found “evidence of links and financing” to Hezbollah after the July bus bombing that killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver in the Black Sea town of Burgas.

The resistance will increase its readiness and training, said Qassem, whose group is designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and Israel.

“All these accusations against Hezbollah won’t change anything or change facts and realities,” Qassem said. “We will not yield to these pressures or change our priorities.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Donna Abu-Nasr in Beirut at dabunasr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net