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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: August 14, 2006 |
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Hezbollah must disarm and the Lebanese government needs to extend control across areas where the guerrillas have operated with near autonomy, a Lebanese government official said in remarks published Monday.
The comments by Lebanon's industry minister, Pierre Jemayel, highlight a potential impasse for the U.N.-drafted plan to end more than four weeks of warfare between Israel and Hezbollah.
The militants have resisted an agreement to surrender their weapons, which include rockets that have reached deep into Israel. Hezbollah also wields political influence through two posts in the government.
But others in the Lebanese Cabinet want to see Hezbollah stripped of its ability to fight as a way to ensure peace.
"Hezbollah has to deliver its weapons to the Lebanese army, and its light weapons to the police," Jemayel, a member of a majority anti-Syrian bloc in parliament, told Al-Siyassah daily. "Its fighters are welcome to join the military force and the state will then quickly regain control of all Lebanese territories."
Syria and Iran are Hezbollah's main international sponsors, but Syria was forced to end a nearly three-decade military presence in Lebanon last year following widespread demonstrations.
"I'm not telling Hezbollah to surrender its weapons to Israel, or to the international community," Jemayel told the daily. "(I am telling it) to surrender them to the Lebanese army."
Jemayel blamed the guerrilla group for starting the war with its July 12 cross-border raid "without consulting with anyone." The ambush killed three Israeli soldiers and took two captive.
Jemayel also took a jab at the sway of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
"If the secretary-general of Hezbollah has become the president of Lebanon, he has to let us know," Jemayel said. |
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