Hezbollah, the militant Shiiite Muslim movement, very often termed as a hard headed terrorist organization by some, freedom fighters by others declared national demonstrations will be held Lebanon, in a show of support of Syria. More importantly, the demonstrations are in protest over ‘foreign intervention’ that were bent on ousting Syrian troops from Lebanon.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the movements security general and chief, candidly exclaimed that Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian movements had rejected the call for withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country and therefore, they would hold peaceful demonstrations to establish the same.
Lebanese opposition leaders expecting any sort of compliance from Hezbollah in their attempt to hurl Syrian intelligence services and troops from the country obviously had their hopes razed to the ground with Nasrallah’s announcement. Beirut will see the first protest demonstration tomorrow near the central square avenue. It was here that Lebanese anti-Syrian movements of the opposition had held protests following the assassination of Rafik Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon.
The declaration for such demonstrations came after President Bashar Assad of Syria stated plans of about 15,000 Syrian troops moving to Lebanon’s common border. This saw strong dissent from the officials in US and France who intend permanent and complete withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon.
A meeting between Assad, the Syrian President and Emile Lahoud, Lebanon's president would decide the actual time of the proposed relocation, according to senior Lebanese officials.
However, Nasrallah was quite forthright about his movement’s intentions and beliefs and said that relocation of any kind would not happen. At a Shiite news conference in Beirut, he put across issues of freedom of choice and autonomy, ruling out any tolerance as far as interference from ‘foriegners’ like US and France in so far as Lebanon’s personal matters was concerned.
Nasrallah demanded an explanation for such happenings from the Lebanese opposition party. Nasrallah put his foot down on the entire issue, diminishing all hopes of the Lebanese opposition, an unlikely political alliance of Sunni, Christian, Druze parties, which were hoping to form a 'free' Syrian government after winning the parliamentary elections this spring.
Syrian Troops have been stationed in Lebanon since 1975 at the invitation of its embattled Christian president. They have also been operating as the custodians for arms supplied from Iran the cash inflows to Hezbollah. This has made the party, in turn, a substitute army against Israel along Lebanon's militarized southern border.
Col. Eitan Azani, who once held important military positions in Northern Command, Israel, clarified that the moving out of Syrian troops from Lebanon would in no way cease the inflow of arms from Iran, via Damascus, to the Lebanese organization.
He said that the Hezbollah was a formidable organization and its strong terrorist network across 40 countries could dispel war and terror at the mere discretion of Nazrullah in co-ordination with Iran. Subsequently, Israel remains on full alert along the northern border, prepared for terrorist attacks and attempted strikes by Hezbollah terrorists against Israel.
All in all, it becomes distinctly clear here that the demonstrations planned by the Hezbollah can in no way be undermined.
