Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah warned Lebanon's government on Monday not to use military force against the Shiite Muslim militant group in a stern warning against any attempt by the country's new president to disarm the militia.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said in his inauguration speech on Sunday that there needs to be a dialog over the future of Hezbollah’s arsenal. The guerrilla group has rejected demands it disarm and has insisted its weapons are needed to protect Lebanon against Israel.
Nasrallah’s speech was his first since Hezbollah fighters seized several areas of Beirut earlier in the month, forcing the government to agree to a political deal that strengthened the group’s role in the government. He pledged to comply with an article in the Arab-brokered agreement that forbids the use of arms to achieve political gains.
PHOTO: AFP
But addressing tens of thousands of supporters in a playground in south Beirut, Nasrallah stressed that the state’s weapons should not be used against Hezbollah and its allies in the opposition.
“The resistance weapons should not be used to achieve political gains,” he said in a videolink speech to the crowds.
He has been in hiding fearing Israeli assassination.
“The state’s weapons should not be used to settle accounts with an opposition political party, or in favor of outside parties that weaken Lebanon’s strength and immunity in confronting Israel,” he said.
The parliamentary majority has repeatedly called for a defense strategy that would eventually integrate Hezbollah’s weapons into the national army. Hezbollah has resisted the calls and also balked at a requirement to disarm included in the UN resolution that ended a month-long war between Israel and the militant group in 2006.
Suleiman said on Sunday that he supports the UN and its resolutions but did not specifically mention the requirement for Hezbollah to disarm.
Nasrallah said that Hezbollah strongly supported the agreement signed by rival Lebanese factions in the Qatari capital of Doha, which gives the Syrian-backed opposition veto power in a new Cabinet, something the parliamentary majority has staunchly rejected in the past 18 months.
“The national unity government is not a victory against this majority,” Nasrallah said. “This country cannot rise and continue except through cooperation, consensus and solidarity.”
Nasrallah praised Suleiman’s inauguration speech and thanked Syria, Iran and other countries for helping to broker the Doha agreement.
Responding to critics from the parliamentary majority who accused Hezbollah of staging a coup this month to rule Lebanon, Nasrallah said his group was not interested in seizing power in this multi-sectarian nation of 4 million.
“We don’t want power. We don’t want to govern Lebanon or impose anything on the Lebanese people because we believe that Lebanon is an exceptional, diverse nation,” he said.
Supporters of Lebanon’s rival factions fired off gunshots in a Sunni Muslim district of Beirut on Monday night, a security official said.
“A clash took place in the Corniche Mazraa area and gunshots were fired,” the source said, asking not to be named.
Future Television, which is run by the camp of parliament majority head and Sunni leader Saad Hariri, said 16 people were wounded in an “attack on civilians” by Hezbollah.
The Lebanese army cordoned off the area and restored order, said state-run Tele Liban, without giving details or reporting any casualties.
Arab satellite television al-Arabiya said the incident came as Hezbollah supporters were celebrating Nasrallah’s speech.
Rival supporters insulted the Hezbollah backers, who reacted by firing off a stun grenade at the Sunni mosque of Abdel Nasser, to al-Arabiya reported.
Israeli army radio said on Monday that Israel is prepared to free five Lebanese prisoners and return the bodies of 10 Hezbollah fighters in exchange for the release of two of its soldiers captured in 2006.
The report came after Lebanese sources said progress had been made in UN-sponsored talks on a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Samir Kantar, the longest-serving Arab prisoner in Israel, is among those who could be exchanged, the army radio said.
In exchange, Israel is demanding the return of two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006 that sparked a devastating 34-day war.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
RSS