Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah yesterday threatened that there would be a Middle East war if there is no deal with regards to Iran’s nuclear program:

World powers failed to reach an agreement with Iran over the weekend to curb its controversial nuclear programme in exchange for some relief from crippling Western sanctions despite marathon high-profile talks in Geneva.

“What is the alternative to a deal with Iran and the countries of the world,” he asked. “The alternative is war in the region.”

Nasrallah simultaneously boasted that such a deal would embolden the Iran-backed terror group and that Hezbollah “will become stronger and with a better presence locally and regionally.”

Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted sardonically that Nasrallah sounded like he was reading from White House talking points, gesturing toward controversial remarks made by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney implying that U.S. lawmakers calling for new sanctions were maneuvering America into a “march to war.”

Nasrallah followed up those comments with new ones issued today in which he committed to staying in Syria until Hezbollah has secured victory for the Bashar al-Assad regime:

“As long as the reasons (to fight in Syria) remain, our presence there will remain,” Nasrallah said in a speech in front of tens of thousands of Lebanese Shi’ites marking the religious ceremony of Ashoura in southern Beirut.

“Our fighters are present on Syrian soil…to confront all the dangers it faces from the international, regional and takfiri attack on this country and region,” Nasrallah said, referring to the foreign Islamist rebels fighting in Syria.

The declaration is difficult to reconcile with recent complaints from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif regarding the presence of foreign fighters in Syria.

[Photo: AFP news agency / YouTube]