Hizbullah Pledges 'Unto Death' Support for Arafat

Hizbullah Leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pledged "unto death" support to beleaguered Palestinian President Yasser Aaraft against Israel, drawing thunderous chants from 100,000 activists shouting with clenched fists "death to America, Death to the Great Satan." "We stand fast alongside President Arafat and his besieged aides in Ramallah, facing Israel's military might with the unflinching will of a martyrdom-loving hero," Nasrallah said in a speech to a Hizbullah-sponsored pro-Palestinian demonstration in south Beirut Friday. Beirut newspapers and radio stations said on Saturday the demonstration was the biggest in Beirut's southern suburbs since the celebrations marking the termination of Israel's 22-year-occupation of south Lebanon in May of 2000. The demonstration coincided with renewed Israeli charges of Iranian missile supplies to Hizbullah, claiming this time that the Party of God planned to use them for an offensive against the northern population centers of the Jewish state to disrupt U.S. military action against Iraq. The Associated Press said the Lebanese government dismissed the Israeli claims as propaganda aimed at discrediting Lebanon. The AP said residents of south Lebanon saw no evidence of Hizbullah warlike preparations and quoted a western diplomat in Beirut as saying there were no signs Hizbullah was stockpiling weapons.

Beirut, Updated 29 Sep 02, 00:42

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