The United States is wasting its time trying to persuade Lebanon to accept Israeli conditions for border settlement, according to Hassan Fadlallah, the deputy head of the parliamentary faction of the Shiite party Hezbollah. Fadlallah made this statement during a tour of the southern regions of Lebanon.
"Israel will not achieve its political goals through American mediators after its defeat on the front," - emphasized Fadlallah at a rally in the city of Bint Jbeil. - "The resistance forces in both Gaza and southern Lebanon will not make concessions to Israel; military actions will cease only after a truce in the Palestinian enclave."
The Shiite politician dismissed the Israeli idea of creating a so-called buffer zone on the Lebanon-Israel border as an illusion. "This issue is not open for discussion because resistance fighters are acting on their land against occupiers," he stated.
Fadlallah remarked that Israel is currently "not in a position to dictate its terms and intimidate Lebanon." He asserted, "We are capable of defending our country and continuing to support the oppressed people of Gaza."
The deputy head of Hezbollah's parliamentary faction made this statement ahead of the arrival of Amos Hochstein, the senior advisor for global energy security at the US State Department, who is mediating border negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. According to the newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Hochstein's trip is urgent, prompted by Israel's plans to expand military operations in the north. The US envoy is expected to arrive in Beirut from Tel Aviv on June 18 to discuss the terms of a ceasefire and the return to compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the conflict in southern Lebanon in 2006.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: marviikad/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS