Lebanon's government which is headed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accused Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah of inventing facts regarding last summer's war in Lebanon. A lengthy statement issued by Siniora's office also accused Nasrallah of "intelligence violations."It said Nasrallah focused on two points in his interview with the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television network aired in two parts on Monday and Tuesday. The first point, the statement said, was to boast of Hezbollah's victory against Israeli troops in the 2006 July-August war, while the second centered on accusing the "others of conspiracy and deception." Moreover, the statement said, Nasrallah provided "new data" about the Israeli aggression Â… facts that did not exist before which is a violation of intelligence."
The statement, published Thursday by Lebanese newspapers, expressed surprise over Nasrallah's remarks when he told Al Jazeera that the request to deploy Lebanese army troops and beef up U.N. peacekeepers in the south to end the month-long fighting between Israel and Hezbollah was his idea. "Our national army was deployed in line with a decision taken by the Lebanese government," it said, stressing that the duty of protecting Lebanon and defending the country was solely that of the army.
It said Nasrallah's claims that he did not approve of the seven-point plan that ended the Lebanon-Israel war were also inaccurate. It said the Hezbollah chief had ignored the fact that Siniora was authorized by the cabinet to negotiate an end to the Israeli onslaught based on a five-point plan in return for exercising full government jurisdiction over all Lebanese territory. The statement said among those points were an immediate ceasefire, the recovery of Shabaa Farms, the release of prisoners and obtaining a copy of mine maps.
The statement said Nasrallah has charged that the pro-government team had rejected the formation of a national unity government following the end of last summer's war, while in fact the multi-confessional Lebanese government was present. The statement said one year after the Lebanon-Israel conflict, Nasrallah was still looking for "excuses" for the war.