Hezbollah To Keep Arms, And Asks Lebanon's Government To Resign
Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent Beirut, Lebanon (AHN) - In a major blow to the U.N. peace plan in Lebanon following the 34-day war, Hezbollah said at a rally they will keep their arms and asked Lebanon's government to resign. Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar told a rally in a Shiite southern suburb on Monday night that "the Forces of March 14 [the anti-Syrian coalition which leads the government] aligned themselves with the Israeli enemy from the start" of the conflict that ended on August 14. "They planned the assassination of the Resistance [Hezbollah's military wing] in collaboration with the Americans and the Israelis. The Resistance will keep its weapons," he said repeatedly, defiantly rejecting the U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution which called for the group to disarm. He told his audience, "This government must go," while the crowd chanted, "Government, resign!" This came as the number of international peacekeepers in Lebanon continue to increase with the recent arrival of French tanks and other armor. Ammar called for the formation of a government of national unity to include Christian Michel Aoun, a long-time opponent of Syria but is now allied with Hezbollah, and pro-Syrian Christian notables like former MP Suleiman Franjieh. Hezbollah holds 24 cabinet position in the current government. The rally was the biggest gathering organized by the militants since the end of the Ju |
