Hizbullah Arms to Stay Even After Liberation of Shebaa
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that his group will keep its arms even if the Shebaa Farms were liberated and acknowledged that a Hizbullah fighter was behind the downing of a Lebanese army helicopter last week.
"Shebaa Farms are not a pretext to keep our arms. If the Farms were liberated now, the weapons will stay," Nasrallah said in a televised speech during an iftar hosted by the Hizbullah Support Committee in Nabatiyeh.
"I am telling you that from now because we are speaking of resistance as a defense need for Lebanon," he added.
Nasrallah also stressed that Hizbullah will not surrender its weapons "as long as Israeli threats persist."
He reiterated that his group will destroy the Jewish state if it launches an attack on Lebanon.
"The five (Israeli) brigades will be destroyed in the south, Western Bekaa and everywhere," he said.
Nasrallah said the helicopter attack in Sujud was an accident that was understandable in the context of the high levels of alert maintained by Hizbullah fighters in south Lebanon in the face of repeated Israeli attacks over the years.
"The helicopter was flying over the hills and landed… Some of the brothers were surprised by the presence of a helicopter and one of them opened fire," Nasrallah said.
Last Friday, Hizbullah handed over the fighter behind the shooting to Lebanese police, a judicial source said.
Nasrallah said the man was an "honorable resistor" who had acted "naturally and instinctively" in opening fire and had asked to be turned in.
"Even in our training, mistakes happen," the Hizbullah chief said in a televised speech, adding that his group is "cooperating with the investigation to the very last phase."
He criticized those who used the Sujud incident in a bid to "instigate strife between the military and the resistance."
"We are most cautious in our relations with the army," Nasrallah said, adding the group was "careful to avoid entering into any conflict with the army."
Nasrallah expressed condolences to the family of Captain Samer Hanna, the pilot who was killed in the Sujud attack.
"I address the father of the martyr Samer Hanna," he said, "and send you my deepest condolences."