BEIRUT, 7 June 2005 — The pro-Syrian Hezbollah coalition claimed yesterday it had a clear mandate to keep its weapons in defiance of international calls for disarmament after winning round two of Lebanon’s elections by a landslide.
The Hezbollah and the rival Amal, campaigning on a pledge to keep up armed resistance against Israel, won all 23 seats in southern Lebanon in Sunday’s vote, Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa said.
The disarmament issue could prove to be a headache for the government that emerges after the elections, with a UN resolution last year sponsored by France and the United States calling for all militias to be stripped of their weapons.
In the first parliamentary poll since Syria was forced by intense global pressure to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April, the two groups maintained their grip on the volatile southern region still intermittently rocked by border clashes with Israel.
“The south has declared, clearly and before international observers, its backing for the resistance as a path for the past, present and future,” said Amal’s influential chief Nabih Berri, also Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker. “Even the rival candidates are resistance fighters,” he said at a press conference, rejecting calls for the disarming of Lebanon’s “resistance.”
Crowds of people gathered in the capital Beirut on Sunday, cheering the results of the second round and waving Hezbollah flags. The first stage of the elections in Beirut last Sunday was won by anti-Syrian groups headed by Saad Hariri, the son of former Premier Rafik Hariri whose February assassination triggered a massive political upheaval.
A further two rounds are being held in other parts of the country on the following two Sundays in elections being monitored for the first time by international observers.
Amal groups fought Israeli troops after they first invaded Lebanon in 1978, but the flame of the resistance was later primarily carried by Hezbollah during the last 15 years of Syrian domination.
Hezbollah, the only armed group not required to lay down its weapons after the 1975-1990 civil war because it was spearheading the fight against Israel, has vowed to continue to fight for the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, scene of most recent cross-border clashes. Hezbollah number two Sheikh Naim Qassem said voters “gave a clear message to the foreigners, particularly to the Americans, that the people of Lebanon are unified over the resistance and independence.”
Hezbollah MP Mohamad Raad said the results showed a clear “rejection of UN Security Council Resolution 1559” which called for the Syrian troop withdrawal and also demands the disarming of all militias.
“Today is the day of loyalty to the resistance,” he said. “(Voters) rejected all kinds of interference in their internal affairs... and expressed their determination to protect the resistance and its weapons.”
With the two groups also likely to secure other seats in other regions in Lebanon’s four-round vote, Amal and Hezbollah are expected to maintain a total of 17 and 12 MPs respectively in the 128-member Parliament.
