Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah says its ongoing battle against the foreign-backed Takfiri militants operating inside Syria will not affect the group’s “readiness to confront” the Israeli regime.

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem described Israel as the Lebanese movement’s “main enemy” and said armed resistance was proven to be the right way to confront the Tel Aviv regime, he said on Thursday.

Sheikh Qassem further pointed to Hezbollah’s fight against the extremist militants in Syria, adding, “Our confrontation with Takfiri groups derives from the direct danger they represent, and it does not affect our readiness to confront Israel.”

Hezbollah must continue in its battle against the extremist groups in Syria as there is a plot to defeat the neighboring country and thus the resistance front, Sheikh Qassem stressed.

He further highlighted Hezbollah’s major victories in its confrontation with the Tel Aviv regime in the past years, saying that the group’s resistance activities led to Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in late May 2000.

Over the past months, the Syrian army, backed by Hezbollah resistance fighters, has managed to make major gains in its fight against foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists that have been operating to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since March 2011.

In February, Sheikh Qassem said Hezbollah’s presence in Syria is aimed at stopping the spillover of violence into neighboring Lebanon, adding that the resistance group is set to continue its operations against the militants inside Syria.

On March 29, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Takfiri groups would have eliminated all the Lebanese people if the fighters of the resistance movement had not fought against the extremist militants in Syria more than one and a half years ago.