Nasrallah: No demilitarized area, Israel lying
In al-Jazeera interview, Hizbullah secretary-general says no one will prevent his people from remaining on their lands in southern Lebanon with their weapons. Responding to Olmert's remarks, Nasrallah denies he is hiding in bunker
Nasrallah made the remarks in a special interview with the Qatari television network al-Jazeera. The second part of the interview was aired Wednesday.
The Hizbullah leader added that his organization would not withdraw from the area along the border with Israel as well, contrary to the United Nations resolution.
Regarding Hizbullah's continued operation south of the Litani River, Nasrallah said: "There is no area south of the Litani which is demilitarized. The resistance is there. I regret the fact that the Israeli leaders are lying to their people.
"We did not leave that area, as we are residents of the villages along the border. We are along the border. We have indeed cancelled our exposed points, but no one can prevent us from remaining on our lands. Therefore, not one Israeli goal has been realized."
A month after the ceasefire, Nasrallah said that Hizbullah had won the war.
"This is a strategic and historical victory of the resistance in Lebanon, and this is not propaganda. The Israelis have said from day one what are their war goals. Olmert said from day one that he plans to destroy Hizbullah and Peretz said that the goal is to dissolve Hizbullah completely, but they didn’t succeed.
"Due to our strong steadfastness, the American and Israeli goals were minimized – only to weakening the organization's military capability and then damaging the rocket arsenal, and then creating a demilitarized area in southern Lebanon."
In the interview, the Hizbullah leader also referred to the remarks made by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during a tour of the north that the proof for Israel's victory was that the prime minister was freely touring the north while Nasrallah was in a bunker.
"I am not in a bunker, but since 1992 (the year when Hizbullah's former Secretary-General Abbas Musawi was assassinated by Israel – R.N.) I have been unable to tour along the border. I cannot tour there not because of the war, but because the Israeli enemy assassinated Musawi in the middle of the day and in front of the entire world. Therefore I had to act responsibly and not walk around like Olmert does," he said.
'We thank Allah for what happened'
Nasrallah also addressed an earlier interview he granted a Lebanese television network in which he admitted, appearing apologetic, that if he had assessed an even one percent chance that Israel would respond as it did, he would not have gone through with the kidnapping of the soldiers.
Regarding the comments Nasrallah insisted, “My words were taken out of context. The results of the war testify that there is no relation between the kidnap of the soldiers and the war. What happened was that after the kidnapping, the Israelis needed to choose between launching a war against us that they had planned for October or a measured response, and they chose to go ahead with the war early. We are not sorry for our choice and we thank Allah for what happened.”
As for the disagreements in the Arab World prompted by the war, the Hizbullah leader said: “We lost nothing from Egypt and Jordan, as we had no expectations of them. The only ones we had ties with were the Saudis, especially in the last year and a half. I was officially invited by the Saudi ambassador to visit Saudi Arabia a month before the war. We considered the matter, but the war erupted and it was torpedoed. In any case, whoever took a negative stance against us is the one that lost in the Arab and Muslim world.”
