Hezbollah rejects call by UN's Ban to disarm
Published today (updated) 14/01/2012 18:17
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=452436

BEIRUT (Reuters) -- Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah dismissed on
Saturday a United Nations call for his movement to disarm, saying it was
determined to maintain a military capacity to defend Lebanon.

"I affirm today, firmly, decisively and with the greatest conviction ... the
choice of armed resistance," Nasrallah said. "These weapons, along with the
Lebanese people and army, are the only guarantee of Lebanon's protection."

Mocking a demand by visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Hezbollah
lay down its weapons, Nasrallah said he was happy that Hezbollah's military
prowess was a cause for concern.

"Your concern, Secretary-General, reassures us and pleases us. What matters
to us is that you are worried, and that America ... and Israel are worried
with you," he said in a televised speech marking a Shiite holy day.

Hezbollah, which fought a devastating month-long war with Israel in 2006,
has rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands that it lay down
its military arsenal, as all other Lebanese armed groups did at the end of
the 1975-1990 civil war.

Nasrallah, in hiding since 2006 for fear of assassination, says his movement
has been re-arming since the 2006 conflict, when it fired hundreds of
rockets across the border daily into northern Israel.

Ban, speaking in Beirut on Friday, said he was "deeply concerned about the
military capacity of Hezbollah" and the lack of progress in disarmament.
"All these arms outside of the authorized state authority, it's not
acceptable," he declared.

Ban seeks protection of UN force

On Saturday, as Nasrallah addressed a Hezbollah rally in the town of Baalbek
by video link, Ban visited the headquarters of UN peacekeeping forces in
southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel and a stronghold of
Hezbollah.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), was expanded after the 2006 war
and now has around 12,000 peacekeepers.

It has come under attack three times in the last year in bombings which
wounded Italian and French soldiers. No group claimed responsibility for the
attacks.

"In my meetings with government officials I called on them to increase
protection for you," Ban told UNIFIL members, adding that the 293 fatalities
since the force was set up in 1978 was the highest death toll suffered by a
UN peacekeeping force.

"This weighs heavily on my heart," he said.

The Lebanese army has taken on a bigger role in the south since 2006, but
given the tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, there is no sign of an exit
strategy for the UN force there.

Ban, who was in Lebanon for a three-day visit, was due to address a
conference in Beirut on Sunday on "reforms and transitions to democracy.