BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Tuesday his fighters would deal with Islamist militant threat on Lebanon’s eastern border but gave no specific details on the location, scope and timing of any military operation.

Nasrallah said his party would be taking action as the Lebanese state was incapable of confronting threats from Syria-based jihadis, almost immediately drawing the ire of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

“There is no place for the Army, the government and institutions. Hezbollah is the alternative to all these and will substitute for them in going to war in Qalamoun,” Hariri said on his Twitter account Tuesday night. “Sayyed Hasan is dealing with Lebanon’s southern, eastern, Bekaa and northern borders as territories owned by Hezbollah in which the party acts as it wishes and sells and buys wars as it wishes,” he added.

Responding to Nasrallah’s declaration that the Qalamoun war is imperative “because it is a moral, national and religious assignment,” Hariri said: “We tell Sayyed Hasan: You are assigning yourself with an immoral, unpatriotic and unreligious mission. You are playing with the fate of Lebanon on the edge of the abyss.”

Nasrallah’s remarks, in a speech broadcast by Al-Manar TV station, came hours after Hezbollah fighters ambushed a Nusra Front convoy on the outskirts of the east Lebanese border town of Tfail, killing at least 15 militants and wounding 30 others, a Lebanese security source said. At least one Hezbollah member, a field commander in Qalamoun, was killed in the clashes, the source said.

Responding to media reports that Hezbollah was gearing up for an all-out assault to oust ISIS and Nusra Front militants from the Qalamoun mountain range near the border with Lebanon, Nasrallah said: “We have not issued any official statement. When the [military] operation begins, it will speak for itself and impose itself on the media. We will not announce its location or time.”

However, he acknowledged that Hezbollah was making preparations for a much-anticipated major battle against the militants, saying that the Lebanese state was incapable of responding to the jihadi threat on the eastern border with Syria.

“Yes, preparations are underway and there are indications on which the people base their judgment,” Nasrallalh said. “But, for our part, we have not announced anything. Going to deal with the [jihadi threat] is imperative. But the timing and location have not been announced yet.”

Nasrallah did not give details of the time limit, location, scale, phases and goals of the offensive Hezbollah is expected to launch in the Qalamoun region to oust the Islamists rebels who, he said, were intent on entering Lebanon.

“The state is not capable of dealing with this matter [militants’ threat]. Had it been capable, it would have taken action,” he said. “If the state assumed its responsibility, we would all support it. But it is clear the state is not capable of doing that.”

He recalled his warning two months ago of a jihadi threat facing Lebanon when snow starts to melt in the spring. “We have been aware of the intentions of the armed groups which were preparing for attacks once the snow has melt,” Nasrallah said.

“We are not talking about a supposed threat [on the eastern mountain range], but about a real aggression that exists at every hour through the occupation of a wide swathe of Lebanese territory by the armed groups and their continued attacks on the Lebanese Army and citizens in Arsal, in addition to the continued kidnapping of Lebanese soldiers and the threat to kill them,” he said, referring to the 25 soldiers and policemen held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front since last August.

Unlike past speeches, which were marked by a fiery and escalatory tone since the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen in March, Nasrallah’s speech Tuesday was generally calm.

In an earlier statement released by his media office, Hariri blasted Hezbollah over its preparations for the battle in the Qalamoun region, saying the fight was meant to protect the Assad regime, not Lebanon. “Media channels and some leaders in Lebanon have been ringing the bells for the Qalamoun hills battle, while the Syrian regime is silent,” he said. “It is as if someone is trying to say that the anticipated battle is a Lebanese one on Syrian land, always under the pretext of a pre-emptive war on terrorist groups.”

Hariri said Hezbollah was “using the Lebanese borders” to wage a war that “only serves to protect [Syrian President] Bashar Assad’s western wing in light of the regime’s recent military defeats in many Syrian areas.”

In a series of questions directed to Hezbollah, Hariri wondered what repercussions the battle would have on Lebanon. “Who can guarantee the safety of the captive Lebanese servicemen held by ISIS and Nusra if a Lebanese party takes part in the battle?” he asked. “Hezbollah alone bears the consequences of getting involved in the war to serve Bashar Assad’s military agenda.”