Hezbollah sees role beyond Israel leaving Shebaa Farms
BEIRUT (AFP) — The Shiite movement Hezbollah said on Thursday that Lebanon would still need its armed presence even if Israel finally quit the disputed Shebaa Farms district in the south.
"Any Zionist retreat from the Shebaa Farms would be a big achievement for the 'resistance' for this would be the result of its role and its pressure," Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah was quoted as saying by the state-run National News Agency.
But any retreat "will not change the fact that Lebanon needs the resistance," he said.
Hezbollah, which claimed to have forced Israel's pullout from south Lebanon in May 2000 after two decades of occupation, sees itself as the legitimate 'resistance' to the Jewish state.
Fadlallah also accused the international community, particularly the United States, of involving itself recently in the Shebaa Farms "for aims linked to the resistance" -- a reference to demands for Hezbollah to disarm.
"Those who think that putting the Shebaa Farms under international supervision could put pressure on the resistance... delude themselves."
During a surprise visit to Lebanon on Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she believed it was time to resolve the Shebaa Farms dispute in conformity with "Resolution 1701."
The resolution, which ended the 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel in August 2006, was based on a plan drawn up by Western-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
The plan stipulated putting the disputed Shebaa Farms under United Nations supervision pending a resolution between Lebanon, Syria and Israel on its legitimate ownership.
Beirut, supported by Damascus, claims sovereignty over the territory lying by south Lebanon, Syria and Israel while the Jewish state says it is part of the Syrian Golan Heights which it seized in 1967 and unilaterally annexed.
Rice said also during the lightning visit that Washington still considers Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, despite the group taking part in Lebanon's new government of national unity.
