Report: Growing calls in Lebanon to disarm Hizbullah
Washington Post quotes Lebanese officials as criticizing organization for escalation on Israel border. Government states it has right, duty to extend control to Southern Lebanon
Criticism against Hizbullah and calls to disarm the organization's terror militia have been growing in Lebanon lately, in wake of the recent escalation on the border with Israel, The Washington Post reported Friday.
"To a certain Arab audience and Arab elite, Nasrallah is a champion, but the price is high," the Post quoted Walid Jumblatt, a member of parliament and leader of Lebanon's Druze community, as saying. "We are paying a high price," he stated.
According to the newspaper, since the fighting with Israel started Wednesday, calls for Hizbullah to relinquish its weapons have gathered urgency.
While insisting that the Israeli response to Hizbullah's aggression was disproportionate, Lebanese officials have nonetheless initiated efforts to extend the government's control to Southern Lebanon.
"To declare war and to make military action must be a decision made by the state and not by a party," said Nabil de Freige, a parliament member. "It's a very simple equation: You have to be a state."
'Time for Lebanon government to reassert itself'
In a cabinet meeting Thursday, the Lebanese government stated it had a right and duty to extend its control over all Lebanese territory. Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat said the statement marked a step toward the government reasserting itself, the Post reported.
Other government officials, speaking to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, went further, calling the decision a first move in possibly sending the Lebanese army to the border.
"It is becoming very clear that the state alone must bear responsibility for the country's foreign policy," said Samir Franjieh, a parliament member who is close to the bloc affiliated with former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. "But our problem now is that Israel is taking things so far that if there is no help from the international community, the situation could get out of hand," he stated.
"It's really time for everybody to acknowledge that these two states do have some measure of control over Hizbullah," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington. "And the international community has called upon them to exercise that control, to have these two individuals released."
