Sayyed Nasrallah: Resistance ready to defend Lebanon

Sayyed Nasrallah: Resistance ready to defend Lebanon
Source: Moqawama.org, 12-5-2007
Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said that the resistance is ready to retaliate to any "Israeli" aggression in a much stronger way than during the last war.
In an interview with the "Qalam Rasas" program on the Dubai satellite channel, Sayyed Nasrallah tackled the situation in Lebanon, the results of the July war and the repercussions of the Winograd report over "Israeli" failures in this war. His eminence ridiculed "Israeli" War Minister Amir Peretz who has said in the past that "Israel" would push the Hizbullah north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon, saying Hizbullah never left the area south of the river. "I laughed when I heard Peretz saying `We will prevent Hizbullah from returning south of the Litani River.` Did we ever leave this area?" Sayyed Nasrallah asked. He said that the people there defend their own villages on the border with occupied Palestine or south of the Litani River.
He added that "Israel" erred when it believed that its mighty air force would be able to halt daily rocket attacks on northern "Israel". "Israel`s" assumption was that the air force would be able to annihilate the resistance within 5-6 days ahead of a diplomatic initiative between the US and others in the region," he said.
"Israel`s" disrespect and arrogance in Lebanon lead to its defeat ... by the willingness and wisdom of the resistance," he added.
He also said that if "Israel" attacked Lebanon, the resistance will defend the country despite the presence of UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon. "When I said Hizbullah possesses more than 12 thousand missiles and then I said that we have more than 20 thousand rockets, this means that maybe we have 30 thousand or 80 thousand rockets or maybe more," his eminence said.
Sayyed Nasrallah asked if the Arab peace initiative is the proper response to "Israel`s" defeat in Lebanon. "Does the timing of putting forth the initiative again serve Arab interests?" The Hizbullah chief said the Arabs should take advantage of the victory achieved in Lebanon, not run to the enemy as if it was the powerful and they were the weak. Sayyed Nasrallah criticized some Arabs for reproaching the Palestinians and Hizbullah for capturing "Israeli" soldiers. He asked them how they can keep silent when there are more than 10 thousand Palestinian and Arab detainees in "Israeli" jails, they forgot about.
The Arab League renewed a Saudi peace initiative in March offering "Israel" full diplomatic relations with the Arab world in return for withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Faced by public uproar over the army`s poor performance against Hizbullah last summer, the "Israeli" government appointed a commission headed by retired Justice Eliyahu Winograd to investigate the war`s handling.
The committee faulted Olmert for taking "Israel" to war hastily and failing to conceive an exit strategy in a partial report published last month. Defense (War) Minister Amir Peretz was censured for failing to seek enough advice to compensate for his lack of military experience.
Nasrallah said he would welcome the establishment of an Arab or Lebanese commission of inquiry to investigate whether his group had erred in launching the cross-border attack.
Nasrallah said that the Winograd Commission pointed that the "Israeli" government had planned a war against his group in March, four months before the war erupted.