Nasrallah urges cross-party political support

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

BEIRUT - Lebanon's Hezbollah chief, who has said he expects a UN tribunal to indict rogue members of his

First Published 2010-07-26


'There is something being prepared against Hezbollah'

Hezbollah chief insists accusations are being invented against his party for killing of ex-Lebanese PM.

party for the killing of former premier Rafiq Hariri, on Sunday called for political support and talks.

"Accusations are being invented against our party... There are a lot of preparations being made against Lebanon and the resistance," Hassan Nasrallah said in a broadcast speech, using the standard Lebanese term for Hezbollah.

"If the cabinet or the national dialogue committee meets to discuss the issue, we will support that," he said.

"There is something being prepared (against Hezbollah). So we must together consider how to confront it, how to deal with this matter," Nasrallah added.

"We will not allow anyone, however important, to affect the dignity of the resistance, something very close to our hearts."

In a rare news conference on Thursday, Nasrallah said Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain ex-premier, told him months ago that Hezbollah members would be accused by the UN-backed court tasked with trying Hariri's alleged killers.

He said Hariri had also assured him that he would publicly avow that it was "undisciplined" Hezbollah members, and not the party itself, who were implicated in the killing.

Politicians and judges, including tribunal president Antonio Cassese, have said they expect an indictment by the end of 2010, sparking fears of a repeat of the violence that in May 2008 brought Lebanon close to a new civil war.

Hariri on Saturday called for "calm" in Lebanon in the face of "attempts... to organise campaigns aimed at sowing confusion and concern in the minds of the Lebanese people."

Nasrallah's speech was broadcast on Sunday at a ceremony to honour the sons and daughters of Hezbollah "martyrs," and to an audience of party officials and supporters, including former British MP George Galloway.