Hizbullah chief, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, on Tuesday used the British prime minister's visit to Beirut to issue stern criticism of the Lebanese government since the fighting ended between Hizbullah and Israel last month.
Speaking to Aljazeera TV, Nasrallah slammed Fuad Siniora, Lebanon's prime minister, for giving Tony Blair a warm welcome in the country on Monday. "You bring him home to me and to my family and you give a great reception?" Nasrallah said.
"If there was an invitation made for Tony Bair to visit, then this is a national disaster."
The Hizbullah leader said that Blair participated in the killing of Lebanese civilians by not doing enough to stop Israel's war machine. "This Tony Blair is an associate in the murdering," he said.
Nasrallah also said his group has been practicing self-restraint against what he described as back-stabbing and provocation by some Lebanese politicians. "Do not these (Lebanese politicians) have feelings, calculations, brain or heart?" Nasrallah asked.
Nasrallah also gave a rare praise to the Israeli media for being "fairer to Hizbullah" than Lebanese politicians.
"Are people made of stone in Lebanon? Is this country vacant of people? Are we only hotels, concrete, roads and bridges?" he asked. "The first mistake of the prime minister and the political bloc that backs him is that they made an immoral and inhuman behavior toward the people who were killed or wounded or destroyed or displaced. This is regrettable," Nasrallah said.
Also on Tuesday, Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy chief, said that his group had not been contacted by a UN envoy appointed to assist in the release of two Israeli soldiers whose capture by Hizbullah sparked the recent fighting.
Qassemsaid that negotiations for the release of the Israeli captives had yet to begin. "We heard through the media that the UN secretary general appointed a person for the prisoner negotiations but nothing has begun yet in practice," he told Reuters.
"Matters are still at the start and this operation has yet to be launched in practice."
