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Hezbollah leader speaks
22/09/2006 20:20 - (SA)
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| Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah speaks to his supporters at a 'Victory over Israel' rally in Beirut's bombed-out suburbs in Lebanon. (Hussein Malla, AP) |
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Beirut - In his first public appearance since the start of the Israeli/Lebanon war, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters would not forcibly surrender their weapons.
"No army in the world will be able to make us drop the weapons from our hands," the black-turbaned cleric told a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people rallying in Beirut's bombed-out suburbs.
But Nasrallah said he would consider disarming his group once the Lebanese government was strong enough to protect the country.
"When we build a strong and just state that is capable of protecting the nation and the citizens, we will easily find an honourable solution to the resistance issue and its weapons," he said.
The leader also said his group would not release two captured Israeli soldiers except in an exchange for Lebanese prisoners.
Hezbollah fighters took the two soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. The raid prompted 34 days of Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.
- AP
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