Hizbollah Says No Word From UN

Lin Noueihed
September 13, 2006
xtra MSN
Original Source: http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11965-6294547,00.html

The United Nations has yet to contact Hizbollah over the release of two Israeli soldiers, Hizbollah's deputy chief said, almost a month after the end of the war triggered by their seizure. 

Sheikh Naim Kassem told Reuters negotiations for the release of the soldiers had not started despite a UN announcement on Sunday that it had appointed a facilitator who had begun work to secure the releases. 

We heard through the media that the UN secretary-general appointed a person for the prisoner negotiations but nothing has begun yet in practice, Kassem said. 

He was speaking as more French troops arrived in Beirut to reinforce United Nations peacekeepers deploying in south Lebanon to pave the way for a complete Israeli withdrawal. 

Israel has been gradually pulling forces out of Lebanon since an August UN resolution halted the fighting, which wreaked destruction on Lebanon and cost the lives of nearly 1200 people there, mostly civilians, as well as 157 Israelis. 

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said Israel should complete its pullout once 5000 peacekeepers are deployed, a target which could be reached this week with the planned arrival of more European troops. 

Around 140 French troops landed at Beirut airport on Tuesday and 13 French battle tanks disembarked at the port. 

Major-General Alain Pellegrini, head of the UNIFIL peacekeepers, said he briefed the Lebanese government on the expected arrivals of the French and Spanish contingents in the next few days, thus ensuring that UNIFIL will reach 5,000 soldiers very soon. 

A further 600 French troops are expected to arrive in three batches between Wednesday and Friday, and will be joined by a Spanish battalion on Friday, a UNIFIL spokesman said. 

Germany's government will make a decision on sending a naval force to help patrol the Lebanese coast at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a government spokesman said. 

No Hizbollah Disarmament 

To expedite the truce, Hizbollah agreed to the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south, which the guerrillas had controlled since Israeli forces withdrew in 2000. 

It also agreed that the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in place since Israel's first invasion in 1978 be expanded to up to 15,000 troops. 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, visiting Beirut this week, pledged to help Lebanon build up its army so it could assume control across the whole of the country. 

But Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah condemned Blair in a television interview, saying he shared blame for the deaths of Lebanese civilians by not doing enough to stop the war. 

This Tony Blair is an associate in the murdering, Nasrallah told Al Jazeera television. 

Kassem said Hizbollah fighters and weapons would not be forced out of the south. The resistance went back to its natural role, which is that the arms are concealed, he said. 

The preamble of Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the war calls for the unconditional release of the two Israelis captured by Hizbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12. It encourages settling the Lebanese prisoner issue. 

But Hizbollah has said it would free the Israeli soldiers only as part of a prisoner swap brokered by a third party. 

The United Nations said on Sunday it had appointed a facilitator who had begun work to secure the releases.