Lebanese PM Saniora:::: Disarm Hizbullah ~ Ceasefire First

Jul. 20, 2006 12:05 | Updated Jul. 20, 2006 12:30
[link to www.jpost.com]
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROME


Hizbullah has created a "state within a state" in Lebanon and must be disarmed, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in an interview published Thursday in an Italian daily.

Saniora told Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera that the Shi'ite group has been doing the bidding of Syria and Iran, and that it can only be disarmed with the help of the international community and once a cease-fire has been achieved in the current Middle East fighting.


"It's not a mystery that Hizbullah answers to the political agendas of Teheran and Damascus," Saniora was quoted as saying by Corriere. "The entire world must help us disarm Hizbullah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire."

Saniora said Lebanon is still too weak to attack Hizbullah's stranglehold in the south of the country on its own.

"The important thing now is to restore full Lebanese sovereignty in the south, dismantling any armed militia parallel to the national army," he said. "The Syrians are inside our home and we are still too weak to defend ourselves. The terrible memories of the civil war are still too alive and no one is ready to take up arms."

The prime minister was quoted as saying that to disarm the militia it is also necessary for Israel to help delegitimize it by releasing Lebanese prisoners and withdrawing from the Chebaa Farms, a disputed territory that Lebanon claims and Hizbullah uses as a pretext to keep attacking Israeli forces.

The UN has ruled that Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 was completed, and that Israeli forces were deployed on the international border. The Chebaa Farms were inside Israel, according to the internationally-recognized boundary line.