Posted on 09/04/2004 3:46:52 PM PDT by yonif
The leader of the Hizbullah group on Saturday rejected a UN resolution calling for his guerilla army to be dismantled, saying the world body's call served Israeli interests.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah also defended the presence of Syrian forces in Lebanon, a situation that began when Damascus deployed troops to Lebanon in 1976 during a civil war and has attracted recent criticism from the United States and France.
"We don't want a withdrawal of Syrian forces at this time," Nasrallah told a Hizbullah rally in his south Beirut stronghold, saying the presence of about 20,000 Syrian soldiers had helped Lebanon consolidate its security after the devastating 1975-90 civil war.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council narrowly approved a resolution backed by Washington and Paris aimed at pressuring Lebanon to reject a second term for pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud and calling for an immediate withdrawal of all its foreign forces - an indirect reference to Syrian troops.
The resolution also called for "the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias."
But Lebanese lawmakers on Friday amended their constitution to keep Lahoud in office for three more years beyond his soon-to-expire term and renewed their loyalty to Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon.
Nasrallah on Saturday rejected the UN resolution regarding the militias as an Israeli "trap," saying it aimed to weaken Lebanon by disarming Hizbullah guerrillas, who fought a guerrilla war against Israel's 18-year occupation of a border zone in southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000 with the withdrawal of the Jewish state's forces.
"The disarmament of militias means (disarming) the resistance," he said. "All the world knows that the disarmament of the resistance (Hezbollah) is an Israeli demand. Today, the Israeli demands are contained in a Security Council resolution."
Nasrallah also accused the Security Council of using Lebanon's presidential issue as pretext, linking it to American and Israeli strategies following the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hizbullah, backed by Iran and Syria, clashed with Israeli forces in a disputed area near the Israel-Lebanon border despite Israel's 2000 withdrawal. The group is on a US list of terrorist organization but is recognized as legitimate resistance by the Lebanese government.
The pro-Syrian government in Beirut has rejected repeated US demands to dismantle Hizbullah and says the Syrian army is in Lebanon on its request.
Why do U.N. delegates bother getting up in the morning?
The United Nations Press Secretary has gone on the record as saying..."Awwww...PUHLEEZE?!?! We'll be EXTRA NICE! :)"
(smiley face was actually included in the press release!)
Fine....
Declare open season on the bastards, with NO residency requirements..
No limit, No fee, Shooting over baited fields allowed and a bounty paid on all species of any size...All weapons legal.
Kill the bastards...
Semper Fi
"Why do U.N. delegates bother getting up in the morning?"
I can't think of why they do either. Ineffective idiots.
So what ever happened to the investigation the accounting re: Iraq? Funds that were supposedly meant for the Iraqi people?
They awake each day to count their money. That and watch porn which is not permitted in their Shiara Law governed home country.
now this...after 40 days, HELL IN A HANDBASKET.
Really Dumb Move Arabs/Islamofascists.
"Hizbullah rejects UN call for disarmament"
I'm shocked, just shocked.
BTW, why aren't they glowing yet?
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