BEIRUT, 15 August 2006 — Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said yesterday his fighters had achieved a “strategic and historic victory” over Israel and that it was the “wrong time” to publicly discuss disarming the group.
“We are before a strategic and historic victory, without any exaggeration,” Nasrallah said in a televised address 12 hours after a UN truce halted fighting between the group and Israel.
He said teams from Hezbollah would start from today repairing homes damaged by Israeli strikes and said the group would pay one year’s rent and the cost of furniture to every owner of about 15,000 destroyed homes.
Just after a cease-fire deal went into effect at 0500 GMT, Hezbollah activists handed out posters claiming victory in the group’s conflict against Israel.
“The divine victory,” read the caption on the posters distributed in Beirut’s Shiite southern suburbs, which showed a smiling picture of Nasrallah.
The slogan on the posters, handed out to displaced persons returning after fleeing the heavily bombarded area during the Israeli attacks, was also a play on words on Nasrallah’s name which means “Victory of God” in Arabic.
Posters were also handed out showing pictures of Hezbollah fighters operating a rocket-launcher.
In the eastern city of Baalbek and some villages in the south, cars with massive loud speakers were driving round blasting out Hezbollah songs of victory.
But a minister brought to the fore differences in Lebanese politics. He said Hezbollah must disarm and the Lebanese government needed to extend control across areas where Hezbollah fighters have operated with near autonomy.
The comments by Lebanon’s industry minister, Pierre Jemayel, highlight a potential impasse for the UN-drafted plan to end the war.
The fighters 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,” he said. “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 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 Nasrallah. “If the secretary-general of Hezbollah has become the president of Lebanon, he has to let us know,” Jemayel said.
Turkey yesterday welcomed the cease-fire, but said it was waiting for details on the mandate of a proposed UN-peacekeeping force before committing on whether to send troops.
Turkey has repeatedly said it would send forces once there was a cease-fire and after the United Nations had approved such a force. Officials, however, have said that Turkey also wants details on where the force would be deployed and under what conditions its soldiers could open fire.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his top ministers and generals yesterday. The Hurriyet newspaper said the meeting was held to discuss possibly sending 800 to 1,200 troops to Lebanon.
A statement released after the meeting said Turkey welcomed the UN decision to call for a cease-fire and the deployment of a 15,000-person strong UN force.
The statement called the cease-fire a “hopeful” development, but added that Turkey was waiting for clarifications as to the mandate of the force. “It is expected that a new decision to be approved by the UN Security Council will shed more light” on the peacekeeping force, the statement said.
The UN resolution gives Secretary-General Kofi Annan one week to report back on how well it has been implemented and leaves open the possibility of another resolution that would clarify the force’s mandate.
Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO, has good relations with both Israel and its Arab neighbors, and the United States and the European Union have been encouraging Turkey to consider sending peacekeepers to Lebanon.
France, Italy and Malaysia have also signaled willingness to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force.
The peacekeepers are expected to keep Hezbollah fighters out of a 30 km-wide zone between the border and Lebanon’s Litani River.
Turkey has a long history of contributing to peacekeeping missions. It led the peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan and Somalia and has sent forces to Bosnia, Kosovo and Congo. Parliament would need to approve any government decision to contribute troops to a peacekeeping force.
