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Hezbollah Chief Says US Trying To Make Contact
BAALBEK, Lebanon, May 20 (Islamonline & News Agencies) - Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday during a speech in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon that the US was trying to start a dialogue with his party.
"The United States treats us as terrorists while they are trying to establish contact with us, working towards that night and day. It is us who are refusing, as we do not want to have the honor of sitting at the same table as them," he said at a meeting in Bednayel.
Nasrallah added that "the resistance will continue ... until the liberation of the Shebaa Farms," a disputed area of some 20 square kilometers (eight square miles) between Lebanon, Syria and Israel, and claimed by Beirut.
"But it is us who will decide on the moment and the place of a strike," he added. The last Hezbollah attack on an Israeli position in the Shebaa Farms was on May 14, causing neither casualties nor damage.
The Hezbollah leader also said that "Israeli threats did not scare the young Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad," and that "Israel is playing with fire as Syria will not let itself be humiliated."
Israel hit a Syrian position in Lebanon on April 16, killing a Syrian soldier, and again warned Syria Wednesday that it considered Syria "responsible for all that happens in Lebanon."
Hezbollah spearheaded resistance against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and wants to recover the Shebaa Farms, seized by Israel from Syria in 1967, and now claimed by Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters kidnapped three Israeli soldiers on October 7 in the Shebaa Farms area and killed another in an attack ten days later. But the Shiite militia, which is said by Israel to be backed by Beirut, Damascus and Tehran, has slowed down its operation since May 14.
Hezbollah has repeatedly resisted calls by United Nations officials and American diplomats to release the captive Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah officials slashed the UN for taking the Israeli side and putting the blame on Hezbollah. Hezbollah leaders insist on Israel releasing Lebanese prisoners first.
The group has asked for the release of 19 Lebanese prisoners in Israel and the return of the remains of Lebanese killed in Israel during resistance operations. The group has often said that the United States was trying to fight a proxy war on behalf of the Jewish state under the influence of it calls "a strong Jewish lobby."
Lebanon, took, came under international pressure to curb the activities of Hezbollah in the disputed 25-sq- km Shebaa Farms at the foot of mount Hermon as Israel has threatened further tough reprisals against the group and Lebanon. Several international leaders have been trying to warn the Lebanese government to keep the militant group on a tight leash.
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