Lebanon’s Hizbullah secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Arab leaders Sunday against confusing the concept of supporting the Palestinian intifada with peace initiatives, in reference to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah’s proposal of full peace with the Jewish state in return for a full withdrawal from Arab territories occupied in 1967.
“What will dominate the Arab summit is the (peace) initiative rather than the intifada,” Nasrallah told a rally at UNESCO Palace to support the 17-month-old Palestinian uprising.
The Hizbullah leader cast doubt over the timing of US envoy Anthony Zinni’s tour in the region, which began last Thursday, commenting that it might have been motivated by “some who have advised their American ally, ‘if you want the Arab League Summit to raise the peace (proposal) and not engage in supporting the Intifada, then you should calm the situation in Palestine.’”
Nasrallah said he believed that Zinni did not come before March 14 in order “to give (Israeli Prime Minister) Sharon the full opportunity to invade the rest of the cities and Palestinian camps,” in reference to the massive offensive against the Palestinians carried out by Israel last week.
“Zinni would then come to broker a cease-fire agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis under the slogan of ‘protecting the Palestinian people.’ But the real purpose is the surrender of Palestine.”
Addressing Arab leaders, he said: “Now is the historic opportunity for you to bring Sharon down. Don’t give him the opportunity that Zinni and (US President) George Bush want him to have.”
According to the Lebanese Daily Star, Nasrallah attacked Arab regimes for not backing the Intifada on a military level.
“If you are unable to supply Palestinians with weapons, then just overlook acts of sending (arms) to them,” he said commenting on the detention and release of two Hizbullah members in Jordan, arrested for trying to smuggle Katyusha rockets to unidentified Palestinians.
“Hizbullah attempted to smuggle arms via Jordan, and not from south Lebanon, because we have no borders with the West Bank or Gaza,” Nasrallah explained.
“If we shared borders with the (occupied Palestinian territories), it would have been a historical achievement. But the problem is that we share our borders with the 1948 territories.”
Nasrallah emphasized the need to focus on the Palestinians’ right to return, asking “what will our stand be if they cross out the (Palestinian) right to return, particularly since unfortunately it seems that things are going in this direction,” he said in response to the Saudi proposal, which made no reference to the right of return guaranteed by UN Resolution 194.
“Arab money is ready for a permanent settlement of the Palestinians (in the host countries). However, it is not ready to support the Intifada.”
For his part, Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas’ political bureau, urged Arab leaders not to pin their hopes on American efforts to settle the conflict: “How many times did America let you down? I appeal to you Arab leaders to trust the (Palestinian) resistance and to provide it with money, arms and political support.”
It should be noted that the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, has left the door open to a Saudi peace initiative for the Middle East, but only as a "tactic" and not a final solution to the fighting between Palestinians and Israel.
"The initiative is welcome if it is a tactic, but if it is a strategic initiative, then we reject it totally," Yassin told AFP in an interview at his home in Gaza City conducted on Saturday. (Albawaba.com)
