Hezbollah says Iran nuclear agreement 'rules out spectre of regional war'

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Monday that a framework nuclear agreement that Iran reached with world powers last week rules out the spectre of regional war. "There is no doubt that the Iranian nuclear deal will be big and important to the region," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with Syria's al-Ikhbariya television.

"The agreement, God willing, rules out the spectre of regional war and world war," he said.

The tentative accord, struck on Thursday after eight days of talks in Switzerland, clears the way for a settlement to allay Western fears that Iran could build an atomic bomb, with economic sanctions on Tehran being lifted in return. Nasrallah said the accord would prevent conflict as "the Israeli enemy was always threatening to bomb Iranian facilities and that bombing would definitely lead to a regional war."

The Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah was founded with Iranian help in the 1980s to fight Israel in Lebanon. It has grown into a powerful political and military force and is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's army in Syria's civil war.