Naharnet Newsdesk - Nasrallah Says Hizbullah is Still in the South, Doesn't Regret the Capture of 2 Israeli Soldiers

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Nasrallah Says Hizbullah is Still in the South, Doesn't Regret the Capture of 2 Israeli Soldiers

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the party still had a presence in south Lebanon one month after a U.N.-brokered ceasefire brought an end to hostilities with Israel.
"The resistance is present south of the Litani River and in the whole south of Lebanon," Nasrallah said in the second part of an interview with Al-Jazeera TV network Wednesday.

In the first part, broadcast on Tuesday by the satellite channel, he heaped scorn on Premier Fouad Saniora for receiving British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Beirut, saying the move was aimed at provoking and humiliating his group.

"We regret that Israeli officials lie to their people by saying they have ousted Hizbullah from south Lebanon and that they will not let it return," he said in Wednesday's broadcast.

"We are present at the border. Before July 12 (when the Israeli offensive began) we publicly set up surveillance posts which we have dismantled... but nobody can prevent us from being present on our territory or from defending our territory, our honor and our homeland," he said.

He said he didn't regret the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah fighters in a cross-border raid on July 12 which sparked a 34-day Israeli offensive on Lebanon that ended Aug. 14 in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

"We thank God that we kidnapped the two soldiers…We are not regretful or sorry," he said.

Following the U.N.-brokered ceasefire, the Lebanese army began deploying soldiers in the south of the country to retake control of a region in which it had no presence for many years.

A total of 15,000 Lebanese soldiers will be deployed in south Lebanon under Resolution 1701, supported by up to 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), expanded from its 2,000-strong pre-war complement.

The army's 11th brigade continued its deployment in the western sector of south Lebanon on Wednesday.

The UNIFIL command also said that army units deployed in five areas vacated by the Israeli military in the middle sector.

In his interview, Nasrallah stressed the Lebanese army will not become "an American tool" and Israel "will fail" to turn the military against Hizbullah.

The Hizbullah secretary general repeated that his party had won "a strategic and historic victory" over Israeli forces, whose objective, he said, had been to crush the group.

On Tuesday, Nasrallah said Saniora and his political allies had shown little regard for his group and those who died during the war by agreeing to meet with Blair.

"The first mistake committed by the prime minister and the political forces that are with him is that they behaved in an unethical and inhuman way toward the feelings of the people who were killed, destroyed and displaced," he told the Qatar-based Arab broadcaster.

In the first interview Nasrallah also attacked Saniora's political allies (the March 14 forces), which led to what An Nahar newspaper said Thursday to a standstill in relations and mediations between Hizbullah and the anti-Syrian politicians.

Nasrallah said Blair had been a "partner in the killing" of more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, during the 34-day Israeli onslaught.

Blair briefly visited Beirut on Monday and was met with a storm of protest by the Shiite community angered by Britain's stand, which was seen as favoring Israel during the conflict.(AFP-Naharnet)

Beirut, 14 Sep 06, 07:40


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