AP: Lebanese PM: Hezbollah Must Be Disarmed

[Eugene]

Lebanese PM: Hezbollah Must Be Disarmed


Thursday July 20, 2006 10:31 AM

ROME (AP) - Hezbollah has created a "state within a state" in Lebanon and must be disarmed,
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in an interview published Thursday.

Saniora told Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera that the Shiite militia 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 Hezbollah answers to the political agendas of Tehran and Damascus,"
Saniora was quoted as saying by Corriere. "The entire world must help us disarm Hezbollah.
But first we need to reach a cease-fire."

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

<snip>

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5963106,00.html

More detailed version: Lebanese PM Saniora: Disarm Hizbullah - AP via JPOST.com

Saniora also says that Israel should release Lebanese prisoners
and withdraw from disputed territory.

[sugapablo]

1. Woohoo!

Lebanese PM finally shows some BALLS! In every interview, even before this crisis, you can see he's WANTED to say this, but was too afraid. Too afraid of ending up in a crater like Hariri (sp?).

I think if some international coalition was formed to disarm Hezbollah and prop up the Lebanese military to secure it's country, Israel would easily back off, and even offer up at least it's "administrative detainees" (those held without trial).

Even if Israel balked, the US at that point would tell Israel it had to. Because getting the world to act in a way that would go against Syria and Iran would be in the US's best interest and would make GWB a giddy little boy.

I'm just not sure how you disarm Hezbollah without doing what Israel is doing now. An "international coalition" might end up killing just as many civilians. :(

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

4. I hope the U.S. stays out of it. I don't want another Iraq or Afghanistan

:hi: Besides we're stretched a little thin right now!;) :kick:

[Kagemusha]

10. "Woohoo"? You're serious?

I just woke up and read this. And I think I'm still dreaming. Or you're talking in your sleep.

Ok, so he's said it.

Does this increase his ability to actually do it? No.

Does this increase his ability to get the Lebanese Shiite population to back his efforts? No.

Does this make ultimate success more likely? Hell no.

You really think that the Lebanese military filled with Shiite infantrymen can be propped up by the international community and convinced to fight its own countrymen and win after the humanitarian and economic disaster Israel has created? I don't.

But maybe that's just me.

[Igel]

11. Hardly.

He's saying he's ball-less, so he can't be expected to be responsible; but he wants somebody else to have some. Preferably some Arab, otherwise he gets nothiing out of it.

The big difference is that he's saying he wants somebody else to have balls. Amazing what hundreds of tons of explosives will do for a person's bravery.

[ShortnFiery]

3. No chance of that - Especially now!

Every innocent who is killed will result in at least ONE MORE ARMED Militant of Hezbollah.

You BREED terrorists by bombing the shit out of Lebanon.

Way to FUBAR (like US in Iraq) Israel! :puke:

[cali]

7. Let's see:

shorty's opinion or what the PM of Lebanon has to say: Hmm. That's not to hard.

[ShortnFiery]

8. Hi again Cali, I see you're up to your old tricks ;)

Trust me, we (USA Military) KILLED over two million Vietnamese and they kept coming at us. Bombing from thousands of feet up when the other side does not have an Air Force is pure chicken shit tactics. Every innocent Lebanese that is killed by this murderous aggression by Israel will serve to fill the ranks of the militant branch of Hezbollah.

Israel may be killing many more innocents that Hezbollah militants, but they are also breeding more future terrorists with each SENSELESS death of innocents.

Gee, Israel is seemingly Hezbollah's (other militant organizations), BEST PROMOTER. :thumbsdown:

You're going a heck of a job Israel!

When will WE ever learn? :cry:

[necso]

5. In part, perhaps, a step in the right direction,

one that recognizes that Israel will (most likely) insist on Hezbollah being disarmed (exactly what this means in practice is another matter; but I believe that there's already a UN resolution calling for this, so there are preexisting grounds for doing something) -- and that outside help is probably required for this (help that will use force as necessary -- but no more). (Counting on the Lebanese Army would be risky, especially since they didn't accomplish this task in the past, and they may have some hard feelings towards the Israelis at the moment. Eventually, of course, Lebanon itself would be expected to keep the peace.)

Putting together such a force is, however, something of a problem. It should preferably be multinational, not include US or British combat-forces, and it should preferably include troops from Muslim nations. Perhaps armed-forces could be called upon from France (?), Germany (?), Egypt (?), and Turkey (? -- this would entail addressing Turkish grievances).

Plus, a ceasefire (more-or-less) will be required first.

However, Israel may continue-on in its present course for some time yet.

But perhaps an acceptable (if not entirely attractive) endgame could shorten the process.

[cantstandbush]

6. Israel has overplayed their hand and now this disarming will be much

more difficult. When you refuse to talk to your enemy you have an enemy for life.

[MrPrax]

9. Hezbollah shouldn't throw rockets

at people, especially Israel.

But why should they disarm?

It's fine for the Lebanese government to talk the talk, but since it really hasn't provided protection of it's sovereign territory, why should any of the groups disarm? The UN is useless as it would never use force against an Israeli attack. Israel would simply do what it wants anyway and simply kill UN soldiers. So what does it matter?

Once upon a time, when the Palestinians disarmed, they were slaughtered by the thousands in a refugee camp...where was the Lebanese government protection back then? Where is it now? Has it ever been a priority for whatever passes itself off as a Lebanese government?

I have no doubt though that Israel would love it that all it's neighbours are disarmed and their governments are choosen based on whether Israel likes them or not...like the PA.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. A day late and a dollar short

If the Lebanese government had disarmed Hezbollah, none of this would be happening.

[cal04]

13. Lebanese PM Says Paper Misquoted Him

(snip)
Later Thursday, Saniora's office said the prime minister had been misquoted, adding that his words had been translated from English into Italian and that Corriere's journalist had chosen sentences that were not connected and did not report the literal meaning of what he had said.

According to the statement, the premier had said that international help was needed to persuade Israel to withdraw from the Chebaa Farms, a disputed territory that Lebanon claims and Hezbollah uses as a pretext for attacking Israeli forces.

''What the prime minister said was that the international community has not given the Lebanese government the chance to deal with the problem of Hezbollah weapons, since the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Chebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons,'' the statement said. ''The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Chebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Fighting-Hezbollah.html

[IndianaGreen]

15. I believe that he was misquoted, else he contradicted himself

as he did here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2400826&mesg_id=2400826

[IndianaGreen]

14. Mixed signals: Lebanese leaders call for unity

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2400826&mesg_id=2400826

Lebanese leaders call for unity

Former president: 'The ship is sinking; we should stick together'

Thursday, July 20, 2006 Posted: 0113 GMT (0913 HKT)


From left, Prime Minister Faoud Siniora,
Saad Hariri and ex-President Amin
Gemayel pose with Hezbollah leader
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in June.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanese leaders Wednesday called for the multicultural country to remain united amid an eight-day Israeli bombardment, a call joined by the son of slain Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"The ship is sinking and all of us, the Lebanese, should stick together and work together to stop the Israeli aggression," Amin Gemayel, a Maronite Christian who served as president from 1982 to 1988, told the Arabic-language TV station Al-Jazeera.

Israeli artillery, warplanes and ships have pounded Lebanon since July 12, when the Hezbollah guerillas kidnapped two soldiers in a cross-border raid. Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militia that holds seats in the Lebanese parliament and Cabinet, has responded by firing volleys of rockets into northern Israel.

Michel Aoun, a one-time commander in Lebanon's 15-year civil war who now serves in parliament, said he did not believe the Israelis would be able to uproot Hezbollah.

"I don't think that Israel has the capability to destroy Hezbollah militarily because Hezbollah is not a group of armed men," Aoun said. "Hezbollah is a major part of the Lebanese social fabric."

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/19/lebanese.politics/index.html

[confludemocrat]

16. Nothing will work without a comprehensive settlement in the region

stating the obvious? maybe, but unless Israel stops taking west bank land, stops grinding the Palestinians into the dust, stops making the Gaza a huge prison, and stops killing innocent Lebanese and destroying their infrastructure and stops insisting on a "right to exist", thereby instituting a perverse illegality of having the dispossessed agree to a state based on Jewish racial and religious supremacy (Israel) and to the dispossession in perpetuity from their lands of the Palestinian people, then this will not be over. No military solution here and it's 1930s and 40s Germany-like collective insanity to beleive for one minute otherwise.

[The Gunslinger]

17. This sounds funny

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

Add that to the old "It's Syria and Iran doing it" chestnut, and it looks like the US has an open invitation to get another war started.

[David__77]

18. Why isn't he defending Lebanon right now?

Who's killing Lebanese civilians right now? Who should he be mobilizing against?

[Kagemusha]

19. Ha'aretz says Sinora claims this was a mistranslation/ garbling

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/740875.html

Denies saying anything like what the AP report said.

[unkachuck]

20. too little, too late....

....where's your Lebanese Army?....why aren't they defending Lebanon?....who is defending Lebanon?....does he think the Lebanese people are blind?....

on edit: sorry David_77, I just read your post....yah, what you said!

[w4rma]

21. Good. (nt)