Sep 11, 3:59 PM ET By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group said it will "cut off Israel's hands" if the Jewish state uses military force to stop a project to divert water from a shared river.

The warning comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ( news - web sites) met senior army officers to discuss a Lebanese project to divert water from the Hasbani river, and its tributary Wazzani river, that flows from Lebanon into Israel's Sea of Galilee, Israel's largest water reservoir.

"We tell Sharon and all the Zionists that if they think for a moment of using force to prevent Lebanon from benefiting from the Wazzani river, the resistance will cut off Israel's hand," said Sheik Hashem Safieddine, who heads the group's executive council.

Hezbollah guerrillas fought for 18 years against Israeli forces occupying a southern Lebanon border zone, until they pulled out in May 2000. The militant group still launches attacks on Israeli military targets in a disputed border area.

The government of Lebanon, a typically parched Mideast state, has embarked on a diplomatic campaign to stave of any Israeli action against the water diversion project.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told reporters that President Emile Lahoud has call for an urgent letter to be sent to all Lebanese missions abroad to try restore Lebanon's rights to the water.

Berri also discussed the matter with U.S. Ambassador Vincent Battle who asked the Lebanese for self restraint, Berri's office said.

"Self restraint should not be by the Lebanese people who are thirsty for water but by war general Sharon who is thirsty for blood," Berri told Battle, according to his office.

The government-run project in southern Lebanon began several months ago to pump water from the river to several villages in the area. It is expected to finish in about two months.

The Hasbani, along with the Wazzani River, converge in a gorge on the Lebanese side of the border, but their waters flow into northern Israel and the Sea of Galilee.

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-- Anonymous, September 12, 2002

Answers

oh come on! They're not seriously thinking of destroying that so as to make them die of thirst?

Or is the fear one of not enough for Israel?

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2002

Remember that prescient article, "The Coming Anarchy," by Robert Kaplan? (To be found at the Atlantic site, check archives.) He addressed water wars in that region. I can't remember the date of the article--was it 1993 or 1995? Somewhere in there.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2002