John Lyons, Middle East correspondent | March 16
ISRAEL'S northern neighbour, Hezbollah, vowed at the weekend that it would never recognise Israel "even until the end of time", while its southern neighbour, Hamas, had a dramatic change of position and said it would "act against" anyone who fired rockets into Israel.
In a weekend of dramatic public posturing as Palestinian unity talks gathered momentum in Cairo, Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah gave a firebrand speech denouncing Israel as "a rapacious entity".
"We are strong and we are capable," he said in a recorded video address to the Lebanese public. "If we will stand on our feet, we can destroy this entity.
"Today the US comes and says to us: you are terrorists and we are willing to forgive you for what has been, under the condition that you recognise Israel."
Nasrallah's speech came as Britain signalled it would begin a dialogue with Hezbollah, which has a strong chance of winning the June parliamentary elections in Lebanon.
Since its fighters took to the streets last May in four days of fighting that left 81 people dead, Hezbollah has had a power of veto on all major decisions taken by the Lebanese Government - a concession given in return for it taking its fighters off the streets.
Last week, British Foreign Ministry officials said they had begun "exploring establishing contacts" with the political wing of Hezbollah with whom there has been no official contact for four years. The US and Australia have no contact with Hezbollah, which they describe as a terrorist organisation.
Reflecting a growing confidence inside Hezbollah that it will officially take power in Lebanon's parliament in June, Nasrallah made a reference to the possibility that the US might want to engage it in talks.
He said in the video: "The US is ready now to talk with any party, not out of a sense of morality, but because it failed in its attempts to implement its plans in the region. It failed in its plan to conduct regime change in Syria and it failed in stopping Iran.
"The American plan to liquidate the resistance will fail in the same way. Generally speaking, before the US lists its conditions for negotiations we must ask ourselves if we want to hold contacts with it."
Hezbollah is the major party in the "March 8" alliance, which is running in the June 7 elections against the "March 14" alliance, led by the ruling conservative parties and Saad Hariri, the son of the assassinated former leader Rafik Hariri.
Meanwhile Hamas made an extraordinary change of public position at the weekend, issuing a statement warning that it would act against whoever was firing rockets into southern Israel.
It said "the resistance movements" had nothing to do with the rockets that had been fired into Israel in recent days.
"These firings come at a bad time," it said.
The statement came as Hamas sought to make an agreement with its moderate Palestinian rival Fatah about the make-up of a future Palestinian unity government. Both Hamas and Fatah have teams in Cairo where Egyptian officials are attempting to find a way for the two groups to jointly govern Gaza and the West Bank.
Last week, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, tendered his resignation to try to make such an agreement more achievable. Hamas and old-guard elements of Fatah are strongly opposed to his involvement in any future unity government.
Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday into the Negev desert in Israel. There were no casualties. The Hamas statement suggested such rockets were being fired by Palestinian militants not associated with Hamas.
The change in Hamas's position came as former Republican US National Security adviser Brent Scowcroft was quoted as saying he saw no reason why the US should not talk to Hamas.
ISRAEL'S northern neighbour, Hezbollah, vowed at the weekend that it would never recognise Israel "even until the end of time", while its southern neighbour, Hamas, had a dramatic change of position and said it would "act against" anyone who fired rockets into Israel.
In a weekend of dramatic public posturing as Palestinian unity talks gathered momentum in Cairo, Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah gave a firebrand speech denouncing Israel as "a rapacious entity".
"We are strong and we are capable," he said in a recorded video address to the Lebanese public. "If we will stand on our feet, we can destroy this entity.
"Today the US comes and says to us: you are terrorists and we are willing to forgive you for what has been, under the condition that you recognise Israel."
Nasrallah's speech came as Britain signalled it would begin a dialogue with Hezbollah, which has a strong chance of winning the June parliamentary elections in Lebanon.
Since its fighters took to the streets last May in four days of fighting that left 81 people dead, Hezbollah has had a power of veto on all major decisions taken by the Lebanese Government - a concession given in return for it taking its fighters off the streets.
Last week, British Foreign Ministry officials said they had begun "exploring establishing contacts" with the political wing of Hezbollah with whom there has been no official contact for four years. The US and Australia have no contact with Hezbollah, which they describe as a terrorist organisation.
Reflecting a growing confidence inside Hezbollah that it will officially take power in Lebanon's parliament in June, Nasrallah made a reference to the possibility that the US might want to engage it in talks.
He said in the video: "The US is ready now to talk with any party, not out of a sense of morality, but because it failed in its attempts to implement its plans in the region. It failed in its plan to conduct regime change in Syria and it failed in stopping Iran.
"The American plan to liquidate the resistance will fail in the same way. Generally speaking, before the US lists its conditions for negotiations we must ask ourselves if we want to hold contacts with it."
Hezbollah is the major party in the "March 8" alliance, which is running in the June 7 elections against the "March 14" alliance, led by the ruling conservative parties and Saad Hariri, the son of the assassinated former leader Rafik Hariri.
Meanwhile Hamas made an extraordinary change of public position at the weekend, issuing a statement warning that it would act against whoever was firing rockets into southern Israel.
It said "the resistance movements" had nothing to do with the rockets that had been fired into Israel in recent days.
"These firings come at a bad time," it said.
The statement came as Hamas sought to make an agreement with its moderate Palestinian rival Fatah about the make-up of a future Palestinian unity government. Both Hamas and Fatah have teams in Cairo where Egyptian officials are attempting to find a way for the two groups to jointly govern Gaza and the West Bank.
Last week, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, tendered his resignation to try to make such an agreement more achievable. Hamas and old-guard elements of Fatah are strongly opposed to his involvement in any future unity government.
Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday into the Negev desert in Israel. There were no casualties. The Hamas statement suggested such rockets were being fired by Palestinian militants not associated with Hamas.
The change in Hamas's position came as former Republican US National Security adviser Brent Scowcroft was quoted as saying he saw no reason why the US should not talk to Hamas.
Source: The Australian
Posts
