BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad warned the March 14 movement over the weekend not to wager on returning to power by virtue of foreign military intervention in Syria, adding that foreign powers were only using the opposition group to maintain allies in the region.

“Those who are betting on returning to power through foreign military intervention in Syria have been fooled by foreign states that seek to keep them linked to their foreign project,” Raad said during a condolences ceremony at the Umam mosque in Sarafand, Sidon, south Lebanon.

“They [March 14] are drowning in false hopes and ambitions so that they can remain tools to be used by the foreign project,” he added.

On the crisis in Syria, Raad, describing the unrest as part of a “grand conspiratorial project” in the region, said Damascus was being targeted for its pro-resistance stances.

“The resistance sees clearly that what is occurring in Syria does not target a regime but a role and the ultimate goal of targeting Syria is to corner the resistance and weaken it,” Raad said.

“These are just dreams and they have missed the train and the necks of the Israelis are in our grips,” the lawmaker added.

While discounting a possible confrontation with the Jewish state, Raad said Hezbollah was nevertheless at full preparedness to confront Israel in any future war.

“We do not hope for a war but we are totally ready for them and we know the Israelis, through our past encounters with them, that if they had any chance to achieve a success through an engagement then no one in the world could stop them from launching aggression against Lebanon. But now it appears … that it cannot launch an attack … because it knows that its fate would be in jeopardy,” he said.

The U.N. estimates over 5,000 Syrians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the crackdown by Damascus against demonstration since March 2011. Syrian authorities deny targeting civilians, blamed “armed gangs” for the deaths.