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Fayyad said the Understanding Document signed by Aoun and Nasrallah is another cushion against Christian-Muslim strife. |
BEIRUT — Hizbullah will not euphorically exploit its military victory against Israel to make political gains at home or settle political or ethnic scores but rather continues to cement national unity, a senior Hizbullah official said.
"We are resolved on addressing all contentious issues through dialogue and will not invest our triumph in making political and ethnic gains," Ali Fayyad, a member of Hizbullah's central council, told IslamOnline.net.
"Our postwar policy is pursuing a national accord to face potential Israeli aggressions given that all signs indicate that Israel is not done with Lebanon," he added.
Fayyad cited Israeli breaches of a UN truce, which ended 33 days of fighting with Hizbullah, and its repeated public threats to assassinate Hizbullah politicians and resistance leaders.
"We refused to descend into media rants though some parties did insult the resistance," he said.
"True there are deep political tensions in Lebanon that intensified after the war, but Hizbullah will continue to work on cementing national unity."
Israel launched its wide-scale offensive on the claim of seeking the release of two soldiers taken prisoner by Hizbullah in a cross-border operation to exchange with Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails.
Hizbullah has proved a foe to be reckoned with, inflicting unexpected losses on Israel, the most powerful army in the region, and forcing the Israeli government to investigate the army's war failures.
At least 123 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 350 others wounded in fierce battle with well-trained and armed Hizbullah fighters.
Hizbullah also shot down at least four Apache helicopters and destroyed one warship, a fast-speed patrol in addition to around 100 of Israel's pride Merkava tanks.
In addition, the Israeli army failed to achieve its avowed goal, i.e. paralyzing Hizbullah missile capacities, with at least 40 Israelis killed in rocket attacks that rained northern Israel.
Guarantees
Fayyad, also the head of the Beirut-based Consulting Center for Studies and Documentation, said there are "guarantees" that protect Lebanon's national unity.
"First, all key political players are united in opposing any sliding down into an internecine conflict, powered by the Taif Agreement," he said.
The 1989 agreement, negotiated in the Saudi city of Taif, brought together representatives of different Lebanese political powers and religious sects.
It covered political reform, ending the bloody civil war, enhancing special relations with Syria, between Lebanon and Syria, and a framework for the pullout of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
Fayyad said the Understanding Document signed by the Free Patriotic Movement party of Michel Aoun and Hizbullah, which has 14 MPs and one minister, is another cushion against Christian-Muslim strife.
"Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon are also sworn to avoid confrontation," he said, citing talks between Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah and leader of the Future bloc in parliament Saad Al-Hariri.
He said Hizbullah championed a call to combat sectarianism in Lebanon based on the Taif Agreement, which called for the abolition of political sectarianism as a national priority but set no timeframe for doing so.
The head of Hizbullah media department, Hussein Rahhal, told IOL in an earlier interview that the group would spare on effort to bring Lebanese Sunnis and Shiites closer.
"Our main concern is to keep Sunni-Shiite ranks always strong and heal any rift to maintain Islamic unity in Lebanon," he said.
Rahhal said Hizbullah would not adopt a fanatic media line that divides the Lebanese on ethnic lines.
"We will not instigate public opinion; this is an axiomatic fact," he stressed.
Stronger
Fayyad said ordeals that faced Hizbullah over the past 16 years showed that the resistance group emerged stronger every time.
"If you peruse the annals of history, every time we faced a difficult situation many expected us to be weakened," he noted.
"The Taif did not weaken Hizbullah neither did the 1993 July Understanding (which followed a deadly Israeli offensive on Lebanon)," averred the senior official.
Fayyad said Israeli's bloody 16-day Grapes of Wrath offensive in 1996, which destroyed 5,000 homes, did not weaken Hizbullah, which emerged stronger and support for the resistance reached all time high.
He said even the US-led global war on terror that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks failed to undermine the resistance.
"The prisoner swap deal between Hizbullah and Israel at the time is a case in point," he said.
In 2004, Hizbullah and Israel reached a landmark prisoner swap agreement following nearly three years of on-again and off-again negotiations.
Under the agreement, Israel released around 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese, five Syrians, three Moroccans, three Sudanese, a Libyan national and a German in exchange for the release of Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.
Israel also returned the corpses of 59 Lebanese nationals killed in action.
Fayyad further said that the exit of Syrian troops from Lebanon fueled speculations that Hizbullah would lose ground, which it did not.
"Consequently, Israel planned for a war aimed at dismantling Hizbullah and finishing off the resistance.
"Hizbullah emerged from the latest war as one of the most prominent parties in the Arab and Muslim world and set itself as a role model."
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