U.N. Envoy Calls for Hezbollah to Disband 
March 26, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Lebanon-Syria.html

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- The United Nations' Mideast envoy ruled out the possibility of disarming Hezbollah by force, saying Sunday the militant guerrilla group should disband like other civil war militias did and integrate into the Lebanese army.
Terje Roed-Larsen spoke at a news conference wrapping up a four-day visit to Beirut during which he held talks with Lebanese officials on implementing a 2004 U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon to disarm.
He told reporters it was not possible to ''take away the weapons of Hezbollah.''
''But we do believe is that what should happen with all Lebanese militias -- and Hezbollah is the last remaining significant Lebanese militia -- that is that they should be molded into the Lebanese army,'' he said.
The U.N. envoy's visit coincided with a national conference of rival Lebanese political leaders on the disarmament of Hezbollah as well as the fate of Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whom anti-Syrian groups are trying to oust.
Last week, the 14 faction leaders -- Muslim and Christian, pro- and anti-Syrian -- agreed to demand diplomatic relations with Syria and to disarm Palestinian guerrillas outside the refugee camps.
Hezbollah disarmament is a tougher issue. Some anti-Syrian leaders have publicly called for it to be disarmed after rival Muslim and Christian militias disbanded at the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
But Hezbollah, which holds seats in Parliament and has a member in the Cabinet, has refused. The Lebanese government considers the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah, labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, a legitimate resistance movement fighting Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah continues to fight Israel in the Chebaa Farms, a disputed parcel of territory where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet.
Roed-Larsen urged Syria, which withdrew its troops from Lebanon last year under international pressure following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, to establish diplomatic relations and demarcate its border with Lebanon as a way of improving ties strained since the assassination.
Relations between Lebanon and Syria sharply deteriorated following a massive truck bombing in Beirut that killed Hariri and 20 other people on Feb. 14, 2005.
Anti-Syrian groups have accused Syria of responsibility for Hariri's assassination, a charge Damascus has repeatedly denied. A U.N. probe has implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in Hariri's killing.
In an interview scheduled to air Monday on PBS' ''The Charlie Rose Show,'' Syrian President Bashar Assad reiterated that his country was not responsible.
''Nobody threatened him in Syria, me or nobody else,'' he said.
He referred to Hariri as ''a friend to Syria.''