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Syria-Lebanon-Iran | ||||
Hezbollah cuts Islamist style from new manifesto | ||||
2009-12-01 | ||||
[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanon's Hezbollah group announced a new political strategy on Monday that tones down Islamist rhetoric but maintains a tough line against Israel and the United States, which it accused of terrorism while vowing to keep its weapons. The new manifesto drops reference to an Islamic republic in Lebanon, which has a substantial Christian population, confirming changes to Hezbollah thinking about the need to respect Lebanon's diversity.
"People evolve. The whole world changed over the past 24 years. Lebanon changed. The world order changed," he said via a video link.
"The American administration's unlimited support to Israel ... places the American administration in the position of the enemy of our nation and our peoples," he said. No disarmament Nasrallah said Hezbollah needed to keep its arms, despite opposition from Western-backed political groups in Lebanon. "The (resistance) is a permanent national necessity that should last as long as the Israeli threat, and in the absence of a strong, stable state in Lebanon," he said, quoting the document. Hezbollah was formed with the backing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It came out into the open as a mainly guerrilla group in 1985 but quickly began establishing social and medical networks among Lebanon's impoverished Shiite community.
Hezbollah members first entered parliament in 1992 and in 2005 the group it had its first government minister, completing its rehabilitation as a political party. Attacks by Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, were instrumental in Israel's decision to withdraw from south Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation. Hezbollah, listed as a terrorist group by the United States, also fought a war with Israel in 2006 that cost Lebanon a heavy civilian toll but its guerrilla force was not defeated on the ground. The manifesto pledges that the group would strengthen itself despite a 2006 U.N. resolution than bans arms in south Lebanon. Israel says Syria and Iran are arming Hezbollah against international law. The manifesto confirms the need to maintain close ties with the two countries. Nasrallah said Hezbollah has become a global model of how to fight occupation. | ||||
Posted by:Fred |