Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militia organisation, rejected United States demands to disarm on Thursday, one of the main causes of tension between Washington and Iran and Syria.
In a defiant response to US pressure, Hussein Nablousi, a spokesperson for Hezbollah, said: ”We are a sword that prevents Israel attacking Lebanon.Without Hezbollah, you would see the Israelis back in downtown Beirut.”
Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim organisation that is one of the most disciplined and feared fighting forces in the Middle East, receives support from Iran and Syria.
The US, along with France, pushed through the United Nations security council in September, a resolution calling on Syria to withdraw its 14 000 troops from Lebanon and for Hezbollah to disarm.
Israel also claims that Hezbollah, acting on behalf of Iran and Syria, is interfering in the West Bank and Gaza to disrupt Israeli-Palestinian peace moves. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, described Hezbollah as a barrier to peace.
Nablousi, whose office is in a rundown part of south Beirut, said that even if Iran and Syria were to bow to US demands to cut ties with Hezbollah, the organisation would be able to continue because of funds it receives from collection boxes outside shops all over Shia areas of Lebanon.
He said that even the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, who was buried on Wednesday in a funeral that turned into a public display of hostility towards Syrian occupation, had not wanted Hezbollah, which is led by Sheikh Hassan Nasrullah, to lay down its arms.
”Hariri told Nasrullah a week before he died he would not accept the disarming of Hezbollah,” Nablousi said.
”Hezbollah was established as a result of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in [19]82.
”It was established as a resistance group. It grew bigger and bigger until we kicked the Israelis out … Hezbollah is not al-Qaeda. We are not living in caves. We are not outsiders. We are the sons of the towns and cities of Lebanon. We are an important part of society.”
As well as its military wing, Hezbollah has 12 members in the Lebanese parliamentary assembly and runs hospitals, schools, welfare schemes and its own television channel.
Its strongholds are in south Beirut, the Beka’a Valley and southern Lebanon.
Military analysts estimate Hezbollah’s fighting strength to have dropped below 1 000 since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
Nablousi said he did not have figures for either membership or funds. He denied that the organisation received funds directly from either Syria or Iran, but admitted that the latter, through its Martyrs’ Foundation, provides financial aid for the families of those killed in the fight against Israel.
Nablousi denied Israeli claims that Hezbollah is extending its operations from south Lebanon into the West Bank and Gaza.
Silvan Shalom, Israel’s foreign minister, said there would be no reopening of peace talks with Syria until Damascus cut its ties with Hezbollah.
Responsibility for the assassination of Hariri has still to be established. His family, which refused to allow members of the Lebanese government to attend his funeral, yesterday called for an international commission to be formed to investigate the killing.
Iran blamed a brief scare on Wednesday over a blast near a nuclear reactor on ”psychological warfare” waged by the US and Western media. – Guardian Unlimited Â