BEIRUT, 2 November 2006 — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday that “serious negotiations” were under way over the fate of two Israeli soldiers whose July 12 capture by his militant group sparked a month of brutal fighting in Lebanon.

In a three-hour taped television interview, Nasrallah said a negotiator appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been meeting with Hezbollah and Israeli officials.

He would not provide details about the negotiations, but told Hezbollah’s TV station, “We have reached a stage of exchanging ideas, proposals or conditions.”

Officials from the Israeli Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry were not available for immediate comment.

Nasrallah has offered to exchange the two Israeli soldiers for Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, but Israel has repeatedly refused. Although the UN resolution that ended the 34-day war called for the soldiers’ unconditional release, Israel has exchanged prisoners in the past.

“They are serious negotiations... It’s better to keep it away from the media...this issue is on track. We are moving ahead. How long does it take? It’s up to the nature of the negotiations,” Nasrallah said.

In the same interview, Nasrallah warned that any attempts by an international force to disarm Hezbollah would transform Lebanon into another Iraq or Afghanistan.

Nasrallah said there are fears that the beefed up UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon would be transformed into a multinational force whose mandate would be to disarm Hezbollah.

“This is dangerous and will lead to transforming Lebanon into another Afghanistan and another Iraq,” Nasrallah said in taped interview on Hezbollah’s television station Al-Manar.

A UN-brokered cease-fire that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah on Aug. 14 does not give a direct mandate to the peacekeepers to take Hezbollah’s weapons by force, unless the guerrillas are encountered in the buffer zone along the border with Israel.

Nasrallah also gave Lebanon’s majority anti-Syrian coalition until mid-November to agree to the formation of a national unity government or face protests demanding new elections.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called for round-table talks next week between feuding political leaders to defuse a crisis threatening the country’s stability.

Berri, a Shiite Muslim leader allied with Hezbollah, said the talks would discuss demands for a change of government and a new election law.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah and its allies should have at least a third of the Cabinet.