BEIRUT, Nov 1: The chief of Hezbollah has said progress is being made toward freeing two Israeli soldiers, whose capture in July sparked a devastating assault on Lebanon by the Jewish state.
In an interview late on Tuesday with Hezbollah's Al-Manar television, Hassan Nasrallah also took pot shots at Lebanon's leadership.
Calling the government weak and fearful, he urged Prime Minister Fuad Siniora to agree to a national unity government and threatened to take his case to the streets if upcoming talks fail.Referring to the issue that set off the devastating 34-day Israeli onslaught on Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah said: The UN mediator entrusted with the issue of the prisoners is meeting with Hezbollah and Israeli officials, and the negotiations are continuing.
We are exchanging ideas and conditions ... and the negotiations are on the right track and have achieved progress.
On July 12, Hezbollah guerillas carried out a cross-border raid, capturing the two Israelis in a bid to secure a prisoner swap. Israel retaliated with an offensive that ended in a truce on Aug 14.
Israel's stated objective was to free the two soldiers and to destroy Hezbollah's ability to fire rockets on the Jewish state. It failed on both counts.
But on Aug 27, Nasrallah confirmed that negotiations on a prisoner swap had recently begun.
And UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Sept 4 that both sides had accepted his offer to mediate a deal. He later appointed a mediator, but deliberately refrained from identifying him.
Both he and Nasrallah stressed that the talks be carried out in secret, with the Hezbollah chief bluntly stating that in the case of any leak, the negotiations will be suspended. Tuesday's interview appeared to be an effort to turn up the heat on Siniora and to push him toward acceding to Hezbollah demands for a unity government.
Nasrallah accused the leadership of seeking the occupation of the country by the UN force policing a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.
The party in power is seeking to make UNIFIL (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) ... occupy Lebanon and disarm the resistance, as Hezbollah is commonly known in Lebanon, said the Hezb chief..
This plan is dangerous and of the sort that could transform Lebanon into another Iraq and another Afghanistan, he said.
In mid-August, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1701, which led to a ceasefire and called for the country to be free of arms except those held by the Lebanese state.
It also mandated the expansion of UNIFIL, which had been present since 1978, to help the Lebanese army maintain the ceasefire and to support its efforts to impose its authority in the south, long a Hezbollah bastion.
On Monday, the Security Council again pressed for the disbanding of militias and strict respect of Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty as called for in a 2004 UN resolution
Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, insists that disarmament is a purely domestic issue, and it was domestic politics that drew much of Nasrallah's focus.
The government, of which Hezbollah is a part, is dominated by anti-Syrian politicians who swept to power in parliamentary elections last year, partly as the result of a popular backlash against Damascus.
It was widely suspected that Syria, which long dominated its smaller neighbour, ordered the murder a couple of months earlier of widely popular former premier Rafiq Hariri. Damascus has denied those claims, which are the subject of a UN investigation.
Hezbollah wants a government of national unity that will include other political groups, particularly its Christian ally, pro-Syrian former general Michel Aoun. And Nasrallah said Hezbollah would call demonstrators into the streets if needs be.
If dialogue does not result in a government of national unity, we will resort to demonstrations.—AFP
