Israel will target the whole of Lebanon in any future conflict against Hizbullah, according to its Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post in Tel Aviv – in which the former prime minister discusses sanctions on Iran as well as the potential for renewed aggression against Lebanon – Barak indicated that no target would escape possible strikes should war flare up along the Blue Line.

Here what Barak had to say when he was asked about Lebanon:

Barak: It means that unlike what happened in 2006 where under request from the administration, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called at the time Prime Minister Olmert and asked him not to touch the precious government of Siniora, and we didn't. I think that they're responsible for what happens and if it happens that Hezbollah will shoot into Tel Aviv, we will not run after each Hezbollah terrorist or launcher of some rocket in all Lebanon.

We'll see the government of Lebanon responsible for what happens, and for what happens within its government, its body politic, and its arsenal of munitions. And we will see it as a legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese state, not just to the Hezbollah.

And somehow, we are not looking for it. I am not threatening. We are not interested in such a deterioration. But being surrounded by so many proxies that operate not just under immediate threat under them, but probably activated by other players for external reasons, we cannot accept this abnormality and I believe that no other sovereign would have accepted it.

Barak: We are warning our American friends that the walls between the Lebanese armed forces and Hezbollah, it's quite porous. And whatever you give the Lebanese armed forces might end up in the hands of Hezbollah, be it technology or weapons or whatever. And we seeing that basically it's a failing kind of attempt of the international community to impose behaviour upon the Lebanese and to the extent the Syrians and the Iranians.

There is 1559, UN Security Council resolution, as well as 1701, and both are violated bluntly by the Hezbollah by the Syrian support to the Hezbollah and the Iranian support.