The leader of Lebanon's Hizbullah said an international court ruling would do nothing to remove Israel's wall through the West Bank, and he predicted the United States would block any U.N. Security Council effort to enforce the measure.
"Americans will be waiting there with a ready veto," Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said at a Friday dinner for Hizbullah-supported winners of municipal elections.
"What will remove the barrier in occupied Palestine is the intention, will, jihad and resistance of Palestinians and the (Arab) nation," Nasrallah said.
He pointed to U.N. Security Council Resolution 425, issued in 1978, that called for Israel's immediate withdrawal from Lebanon after it invaded. Israel did not pull out until 2000, following years of attacks spearheaded by Hizbullah.
"This international resolution was not able to return for us one inch of our occupied lands," Nasrallah said. "Arabs might be happy for hours or days because of the international court's ruling, but everybody knows that this ruling is nonbinding."
On his part, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud praised the ruling on Saturday and called on the United Nations to "take its historic responsibility by rejecting the illegitimacy of the barrier and working to achieve peace and stability in the region." (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
