Hizb Allah: ‘We will not disarm’

Nasrallah: Armed resistance only viable weapon against resistance

At a celebration rally marking three years since the Israeli Army withdrew from south Lebanon, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah urged fellow Arabs in Iraq and the Palestinian territories to take up arms and drive occupation forces from their lands.

   

“They want to disarm us, but we refuse to do so… Today we need to keep betting on the resistance,” he told thousands of Lebanese gathered in the eastern city of Baalbek, the group’s stronghold.

   

Nasrallah said armed resistance was the only viable weapon against military occupation, and the Lebanese experience in the south could be repeated elsewhere in the region.

   

“What we want to confirm is that what happened on 25 May is not an exception.. but can happen in any country whose land is occupied and whose people have chosen to resist,” Nasrallah said.

 

Nasrallah said what thousands wanted to hear

 

Hizb Allah waged a war of attrition that forced Israel to end its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon on 25 May 2000. The group has proved inspirational to Palestinian opposition groups and has developed a sophisticated visual and electronic media network to broadcast its message.

 

In April 2002, with a large-scale series of Israeli attacks  into the West Bank underway, tension between Hizb Allah and Israel rose to a peak as both sides traded fire across the border.

   

US Secretary of State Colin Powell used his visits to Damascus and Beirut this month to demand that the group disarm and the Lebanese army deploy on the international border.

   

But Syrian President Bashar al Assad said in remarks published on Sunday, that his country would continue to support Hizb Allah for as long as the group limits its operations to defending Lebanon from potential Israeli threats.