Israeli President: we do not want war with Lebanon

Israel's President Isaac Herzog told Sky News that Israel is not interested to be at war with Lebanon.

Asked about the risk of a wider regional war breaking out in the Middle East, Herzog says Israel is in a "dangerous situation" and says there is "clearly the potential of escalating dramatically".

On whether Israel is now at war with Lebanon, he says: "Israel is not interested to be at war with Lebanon. We do not want to get into a war with Lebanon. But Lebanon has been hijacked by a terror organisation which is also a political party called Hezbollah."

Herzog is asked about whether Israel was responsible for this week's exploding pager and walkie-talkie attacks in Lebanon.

The Israeli president rejected out of hand any connection to the deadly attacks in Lebanon caused by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies. According to him, there are many enemies of Hezbollah out there.