Lebanon’s Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri said Monday that the Lebanese resistance to Israel should not monopolized by any single party, reported the Daily Star newspaper, saying the premier’s remarks were in response to remarks by head of Hizbollah movement.
The victory scored with Israel's hasty unilateral troop pullout from south Lebanon in May after 22 years of occupation was possible because of the "unanimous backing of all the Lebanese, at all levels... to the resistance, its men and its operations," said Hariri in a statement, quoted by the paper.
Hariri's office said the statement was in response to Sunday's warning by Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah against giving in to US or Israeli pressures to stop armed resistance operations, the paper said.
On Friday, an Israeli soldier was killed and three others were injured in an ambush by Hizbollah in the disputed Shabaa farms.
Nasrallah, said the Daily Star, lashed out at US ambassador to Lebanon, David Satterfield, who had warned Saturday that Hizbollah attacks on Israel could scare away foreign investors from Lebanon's struggling economy.
On Monday, Hariri told reporters in Paris that Beirut and Damascus would do nothing to provoke Israel's anger along its northern border.
Sources close to the Lebanese government told AFP that Hariri had been irritated by the timing of Hizbollah's attack.
Following the publication of the statement on Monday, Hariri received MP Mohamad Raad, head of the Hizbolah parliamentary block, and politburo member Hassan Khalil, said the paper.
It added that the one-hour meeting mainly focussed on the meaning of the word “provocation.”
The two parties have reached an agreement, a source told the paper – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
