A senior Lebanese Shia cleric has said that the new US move to deploy a US warship off the Lebanese coast amounts to a declaration of war.

Seyyed Mohammed Hossein Fadlallah said, "The deployment of the USS Cole to the area is no less than a declaration of war and a new attempt to break the resistance and anti-American groups in the region."

"Positions taken by some Lebanese elements in support of the US military moves along the Lebanese coast are deeply reprehensible," he noted.

Commenting on recent Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip, the cleric said, "We are now observing that not only have Arabs ignored the Palestinian issue in general, but have remained deplorably indifferent to the massacre of innocent Palestinians by the Zionist regime that has been going on without interruption for more than half a century."

Meanwhile, UNIFIL Commander in Lebanon Major Gen. Alan Pellegrini said the new US military move is aimed at delivering certain messages.

According to Press TV's Beirut bureau, Pellegrini said sending the USS Cole warship off Lebanon's coast is not related to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) but it refers to the relation between the two governments of US and Lebanon.

The new US decision to send the warship is an indication of its efforts to keep the situation under control, especially in view of the possibility that some Lebanese groups may take some kind of military action aimed at relieving pressure on Palestinians in the Gaza strip, Pellegrini was quoted as saying.

According to the UNIFIL commander, another message to be conveyed by the decision to dispatch the US warship is to assure the Zionist regime of US support for its ongoing military operation against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.