In a defiant ”victory” speech in a bombed-out suburb of Beirut, the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Friday his organisation had recovered from its month-long war with Israel and now possessed more than 20 000 rockets.
”Within days, and [despite] emerging from a ferocious war, [Hezbollah] has recovered all its organisational and military capabilities … it is stronger than it was before July 12,” he told a cheering crowd of several hundred thousand people.
Under intense security amid fears of an assassination attempt, Nasrallah was making his first public appearance since the war started more than 10 weeks ago.
Israel has been particularly anxious to prevent Hezbollah re-arming. According to various estimates the organisation had fewer than 20 000 rockets before and fired about 4 000 during the conflict.
Although Nasrallah’s latest claim is impossible to verify, he has a reputation for not bluffing. Flanked by bodyguards and with only his head visible above a protective screen labelled Victory Festival 2006, he said his guerrillas would never surrender their weapons. ”No army in the world will be able to make us drop the weapons from our hands.”
But he said Hezbollah would consider disarming once the Lebanese government was strong enough to protect the country. ”When we build a strong and just state that is capable of protecting the nation and the citizens, we will easily find an honourable solution to the resistance issue and its weapons,” he said.
Nasrallah told the crowd he had decided to appear despite threats to his life, having debated with his aides until 30 minutes before the rally began about whether to attend. Since the war Israeli officials have said they would continue to target Hezbollah’s leadership but the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, refused to comment on Thursday on whether Israel would try to kill Nasrallah at the rally.
Thousands had walked from Shia villages in south Lebanon to attend. Many carried pictures of Nasrallah and wore yellow Hezbollah T-shirts. ”God was generous to us and granted us this victory against our enemy. He was generous to us and gave us Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah so we come here to celebrate with him,” Hussein Kaddouh (29) from the southern village of Yater, told Reuters.
Nasrallah devoted much of his speech to deriding the Western-backed government of Fouad Siniora, in which Hezbollah has two ministerial posts.
Former president Amin Gemayel, a sharp critic of Hezbollah, described parts of the speech as dangerous. ”He is linking giving up Hezbollah’s weapons to regime change in Lebanon and … to drastic changes on the level of the Lebanese government,” Gemayel said.
The rally had been expected to coincide with the final withdrawal of Israeli troops from the south, but Israel’s army chief said on Wednesday the pull-out might take a few more days. – Guardian Unlimited Â