There Are No Negotiations with Hizbullah
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said there are no negotiations with Hizbullah, adding that the party should abide by Security Council resolution 1701.
"There are no negotiations with Hizbullah and we say that Hizbullah has to abide by resolution 1701," Miliband told An Nahar newspaper.
He denied contacts with Hizbullah although Hizbullah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan visited Britain in April in response to an invitation by members of the House of Commons.
Miliband said March 6 that Britain had authorized low-level contact with the political wing of Hizbullah to stress the urgency of disbanding militias.
"The military wing of Hizbullah is proscribed in the UK," but the political wing is now represented in the Lebanese government, Miliband had explained on BBC radio.
"In the Lebanon they have one cabinet member and we”ve sanctioned low-level contacts with them so that we can make absolutely clear out determination to see United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, which calls for the disbanding of militias, among other things in Lebanon, taken forward with real speed," he said.
Miliband also told An Nahar on the sidelines of a Security Council meeting on the Middle East that Lebanese parliamentary elections should be held democratically and as part of the constitution.
In his statement to the Council, Miliband said "the rearmament of Hizbullah is in contravention" of resolution 1559.