Hezbollah won't disarm, has 20 000 rockets: Nasrallah
By Andrea Doucet,WNS Israel Bureau Chief
BEIRUT - Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah made his first public appearance since the war with Israel at a huge "victory" rally, rejecting calls to disarm and saying his guerrilla group still had 20,000 rockets. Nasrallah, 46, emerged from more than two months in hiding to address a rapturous crowd in Beirut's shattered southern suburbs which his Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia said numbered in the hundreds of thousands. "We are celebrating a great divine, historic and strategic victory," the charismatic, bearded cleric told the sea of supporters waving thousands of yellow flags, the color of Hezbollah. "The resistance is stronger today than on July 12," Nasrallah said, when Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers along the Israeli-Lebanese border, triggering a month of fierce clashes."The resistance today has more than 20,000 rockets," he added, rejecting Israeli claims to have inflicted heavy damage on the guerrilla group. One of Israel's stated aims in the offensive which ended in mid-August was to eliminate Hezbollah's capacity to fire rockets, thousands of which were launched at the Jewish state during the conflict, killing dozens of civilians. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which halted the war, demands the disarmament of all militias in Lebanon.
But Nasrallah said his movement would not give up its weapons as long as there was a weak Lebanese state incapable of defending itself from Israel. "We do not want to keep our arms for ever," he said. "But disarming the resistance ... under this state, this authority, this regime and in this current situation means keeping Lebanon at risk of having Israel kill and bombard at will," the Hezbollah leader said. "Let us build a strong and just state," he said, calling for a new government of national unity.
posted by wnsworld @ 5:00 AM
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