Hizbullah Says Flat 'No' to Army Deployment on Lebanon's Border with Israel
Evidently emboldened by Iran's 'cart blanche' support, Hizbullah has publicly rejected the deployment of the Lebanese army along Lebanon's borders with Israel, saying its resistance "will continue until occupation is lifted off the last piece of soil from our land," the Beirut media reported on Monday.
The defiant announcement was made Sunday by legislator Mohammed Raad, leader of Hizbullah's bloc in Parliament, just a day after Hizbullah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah returned from a 5-day visit to Tehran with pledges of unlimited support from Iran's newly elected president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"The army is present in south Lebanon within the context of a national strategy that guarantees Lebanon's interests against Israeli aggressiveness," Raad said in a public rally held in the southern township of Arabsalim on Sunday. His statement was trumpeted by the local media on Monday.
Referring to U.N. Security Council resolution 1614, which called for the deployment of the Lebanese army along the border with Israel to end Hizbullah's effective control of the borderline, Raad said this resolution was tailored by the United States to keep the heat on Lebanon for disarming Hizbullah in line with resolution 1559.
"This is a sovereignty issue and no external side is allowed to tamper with. The Lebanese alone are entitled to lay down their national strategies, not the Americans nor anyone else," Raad said.
"Resistance will persist until occupation is lifted off the last piece of soil of our land."
Raad contended that the population of Lebanon supported the resistance, which is operating in coordination with the Lebanese army in the south.
The army is said to have 5,000 troops deployed in the south, but away from the immediate borderline with Israel, which has been controlled by Hizbullah's irregulars since the May 24, 2000 termination of Israel's occupation of south Lebanon.
U.N. representative in south Lebanon, Gere Pederson, has engaged the government of Lebanon in talks about the army's deployment in accordance with resolution 1614, which extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL for an additional six months ending on Jan. 31, 2006.
Pederson has reportedly asked President Lahoud and Premier Seniora exactly when the much talked about inter-Lebanese dialogue on Hizbullah's disarmament would begin and how long would it last.
The pointed questions were seen by the local media as a clear indication that the Security Council would withdraw UNIFIL from south Lebanon if the Lebanese army fails to take direct control of the border with Israel from Hizbullah by Jan.31 of next year.
Raad renewed in his Arabsalim speech Hizbullah's rejection of an amnesty for pro-Israeli Lebanese militiamen now living in Israel. "They are traitors," he said
The defiant announcement was made Sunday by legislator Mohammed Raad, leader of Hizbullah's bloc in Parliament, just a day after Hizbullah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah returned from a 5-day visit to Tehran with pledges of unlimited support from Iran's newly elected president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"The army is present in south Lebanon within the context of a national strategy that guarantees Lebanon's interests against Israeli aggressiveness," Raad said in a public rally held in the southern township of Arabsalim on Sunday. His statement was trumpeted by the local media on Monday.
Referring to U.N. Security Council resolution 1614, which called for the deployment of the Lebanese army along the border with Israel to end Hizbullah's effective control of the borderline, Raad said this resolution was tailored by the United States to keep the heat on Lebanon for disarming Hizbullah in line with resolution 1559.
"This is a sovereignty issue and no external side is allowed to tamper with. The Lebanese alone are entitled to lay down their national strategies, not the Americans nor anyone else," Raad said.
"Resistance will persist until occupation is lifted off the last piece of soil of our land."
Raad contended that the population of Lebanon supported the resistance, which is operating in coordination with the Lebanese army in the south.
The army is said to have 5,000 troops deployed in the south, but away from the immediate borderline with Israel, which has been controlled by Hizbullah's irregulars since the May 24, 2000 termination of Israel's occupation of south Lebanon.
U.N. representative in south Lebanon, Gere Pederson, has engaged the government of Lebanon in talks about the army's deployment in accordance with resolution 1614, which extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL for an additional six months ending on Jan. 31, 2006.
Pederson has reportedly asked President Lahoud and Premier Seniora exactly when the much talked about inter-Lebanese dialogue on Hizbullah's disarmament would begin and how long would it last.
The pointed questions were seen by the local media as a clear indication that the Security Council would withdraw UNIFIL from south Lebanon if the Lebanese army fails to take direct control of the border with Israel from Hizbullah by Jan.31 of next year.
Raad renewed in his Arabsalim speech Hizbullah's rejection of an amnesty for pro-Israeli Lebanese militiamen now living in Israel. "They are traitors," he said
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