Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Hizbollah Challenges U.S. to Take Away Its Weapons
Thu Mar 31,12:41 PM ET World - Reuters
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A defiant Hizbollah leader challenged the United States Thursday to send troops to Lebanon to carry out its call to disarm the Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla group.
"We tell America and all those who want to disarm the resistance in Lebanon and the resistance in Palestine to safeguard Israel: ... This is forbidden. It is not possible," Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a rally in Beirut.
"What is left for them is that the Americans come themselves to disarm the resistance and the (Palestinian refugee) camps in Lebanon. I wish they would come, I wish they would come," he said to applause.
Washington lists Hizbollah as a "terrorist group" and has called for it to lay down its arms. A U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution calls for the disarming of Hizbollah and Palestinian groups in refugee camps in Lebanon.
"All of us will protect the resistance, protect its role and its duty," Nasrallah said.
the swede said:Hezbollah might be a terrorisr organization but any crime they have done pales in comparison with Israel's.
the swede said:Hezbollah might be a terrorisr organization but any crime they have done pales in comparison with Israel's.
the swede said:Hezbollah might be a terrorisr organization but any crime they have done pales in comparison with Israel's.
the swede said:Hezbolah's crimes can never be justfied, but we have to understand why such organizations exist.
the swede said:Hezbolah's crimes can never be justfied, but we have to understand why such organizations exist.
the swede said:well, remember that Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982
Why did Israel invade Lebanon in 1982?
In June 1978, Prime Minister Begin, under intense American pressure, withdrew Israel's Litani River Operation forces from southern Lebanon. They were replaced by UNIFIL, a UN force to restore peace and help the Lebanonese government re-establish its authority, as authorized by UN Resolution 425. The withdrawal of Israeli troops without having removed the PLO from its bases in southern Lebanon became a major embarrassment to the Begin government, maintaining pressure for Israel to return.
UNIFIL was unable to prevent terrorists from reinfiltrating the region and introducing new, more dangerous arms. Cross-border conflict between Israel and the various forces in Southern Lebanon continued at differing levels of intensity after 1978. Civilians on both sides, and UNIFIL peacekeepers, were killed as the fighting ebbed and flowed. Israel increased its support of the Lebanese Christian Militia in the south, under Major Saad Haddad, who regularly fought armed PLO fighters but also caused casualties among non-combatants. The US government during the Carter administration (1976-1980) had several times joined in UN condemnations of Israeli raids and reprisals in South Lebanon, always condemning simultaneously PLO terrorist cross-border activities (generally not condemned by the UN).
In July of 1981 Lebanese-American Philip Habib was sent by the Reagan Administration to negotiate a more lasting cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel. On July 24 Habib announced agreement that all hostile military action between Lebanese and Israeli territory in either direction would cease. For the next eleven months the cease-fire was in effect as a formality, but the PLO repeatedly violated the agreement. Israel charged that the PLO staged 270 terrorist actions in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and along the Lebanese and Jordanian borders. Twenty*nine Israelis died and more than 300 were injured in the attacks. In April 1982, after a landmine killed an Israeli officer, the rocket attacks and air strikes recommenced.
Israeli strikes and commando raids were unable to stem the growth of the PLO army which built camps, trained thousands of fighters, and stockpiled arms in south Lebanon. The situation in the Galilee became intolerable as the frequency of attacks forced thousands of Israeli residents to flee their homes or to spend large amounts of time in bomb shelters. Israel was not prepared to wait for more deadly attacks to be launched against its civilian population before acting against the PLO terrorists.
The final provocation occurred in June 3, 1982 when a Palestinian terrorist group led by Abu Nidal attempted to assassinate Israel's Ambassador to Great Britain, Shlomo Argov. The IDF subsequently bombed PLO bases and ammunition dumps in Beirut and attacked other targets in Lebanon on June 4-5, 1982. The PLO responded with a massive artillery and mortar attack on the Israeli population of the Galilee. It was the PLO shelling, and not directly the Argov shooting as is sometimes assumed, that triggered the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
On June 6, 1982, under the direction of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel invaded Lebanon with a massive force, called Operation Peace for the Galilee, driving all the way to Beirut and putting the PLO and residents, as well as the Lebanese civilian population of that city, under siege. Israel justified its breech of the Habib cease-fire by citing the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London and a build-up of PLO armaments in South Lebanon. Israel was also concerned by increasing Syrian involvement in the Lebanese civil war and wanted to forestall a hostile, Syrian-backed government developing in Lebanon.
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said of the operation:
No sovereign state can tolerate indefinitely the buildup along its borders of a military force dedicated to its destruction and implementing its objectives by periodic shellings and raids. (Washington Post, June 16, 1982)
In July of 1981 Lebanese-American Philip Habib was sent by the Reagan Administration to negotiate a more lasting cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel. On July 24 Habib announced agreement that all hostile military action between Lebanese and Israeli territory in either direction would cease. For the next eleven months the cease-fire was in effect as a formality, but the PLO repeatedly violated the agreement. Israel charged that the PLO staged 270 terrorist actions in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and along the Lebanese and Jordanian borders. Twenty*nine Israelis died and more than 300 were injured in the attacks. In April 1982, after a landmine killed an Israeli officer, the rocket attacks and air strikes recommenced.
Israeli strikes and commando raids were unable to stem the growth of the PLO army which built camps, trained thousands of fighters, and stockpiled arms in south Lebanon. The situation in the Galilee became intolerable as the frequency of attacks forced thousands of Israeli residents to flee their homes or to spend large amounts of time in bomb shelters. Israel was not prepared to wait for more deadly attacks to be launched against its civilian population before acting against the PLO terrorists.
The final provocation occurred in June 3, 1982 when a Palestinian terrorist group led by Abu Nidal attempted to assassinate Israel's Ambassador to Great Britain, Shlomo Argov. The IDF subsequently bombed PLO bases and ammunition dumps in Beirut and attacked other targets in Lebanon on June 4-5, 1982. The PLO responded with a massive artillery and mortar attack on the Israeli population of the Galilee. It was the PLO shelling, and not directly the Argov shooting as is sometimes assumed, that triggered the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
On June 6, 1982, under the direction of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel invaded Lebanon with a massive force, called Operation Peace for the Galilee, driving all the way to Beirut and putting the PLO and residents, as well as the Lebanese civilian population of that city, under siege. Israel justified its breech of the Habib cease-fire by citing the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London and a build-up of PLO armaments in South Lebanon. Israel was also concerned by increasing Syrian involvement in the Lebanese civil war and wanted to forestall a hostile, Syrian-backed government developing in Lebanon.
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said of the operation:
No sovereign state can tolerate indefinitely the buildup along its borders of a military force dedicated to its destruction and implementing its objectives by periodic shellings and raids. (Washington Post, June 16, 1982)
the swede said:well, remember that Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and killed at least 30 000 civillian (according to the red cross) , bombed Beirut and let she falangists slaughter thousands of palestineans in sabra and shatilla.
Do you find it strange that people in Lebanon opposed this and joined organizations like hezbollah. I'm not saying that I support Hezbollah (cause I don't) but we have to undeerstand why they exist.
the swede said:well, remember that Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and killed at least 30 000 civillian (according to the red cross) , bombed Beirut and let she falangists slaughter thousands of palestineans in sabra and shatilla.
Do you find it strange that people in Lebanon opposed this and joined organizations like hezbollah. I'm not saying that I support Hezbollah (cause I don't) but we have to undeerstand why they exist.
Yer gonna be awaitin a loooong time there, redneck!manu1959 said:hello......
CSM said:Yer gonna be awaitin a loooong time there, redneck!
the swede said:I don't think you should use violence against Hezbollah, that would only make more popular among the shias in Lebanon. The right wat to deal with any kind of terrorism is negotiating. Take the conflict om Northern Ireland for example, it wasn't untill the british started to use diplomacy that they made any progress. Belfast today isn't Utopia but it's a better place today than 10 years ago.
the swede said:I don't think you should use violence against Hezbollah, that would only make them more popular among the shias in Lebanon. The right wat to deal with any kind of terrorism is negotiating. Take the conflict on Northern Ireland for example, it wasn't untill the british started to use diplomacy that they made any progress. Belfast today isn't Utopia but it's a better place today than 10 years ago.
