No news on prisoner negotiations, says Hizbullah No. 2

"Hizbullah is as strong as it needs to be to withstand any Israeli aggression," Deputy Secretary General of Hizbullah Sheikh Naim Kassem told the organization's al-Manar news agency Wednesday. "The latest aggression only made us stronger. We acquired forces, we're still highly prepared," he said, referring to the Second Lebanon War.

Kassem said that Hizbullah does not intend to attack, but that if Israel attacks, "we'll show them some surprises…Israel is weaker today than it was in the last war, whereas the party (Hizbullah) is strong…We won't leave behind our prisoners," he added.

He accused Israel of functioning as an arm of the United States. "Everyone has always said that Israel pulls America's strings, but now it turns out that America rules Israel. Israel has turned into America's arm.

"We didn't initiate the war with Israel," he stated. "Who started the war? Israel. It turned out that Israel does not respond proportionally, but rather executes preplanned American decisions. The aggression was planned in advance.

"We did not give Israel an excuse," Kassem claimed. "Taking the soldiers captive was aberrant and we did not consult with anyone when doing this…We carried out an operation to release our prisoners," he said, justifying Hizbullah's kidnap last July.

"The problem is Israel's decision and not the incident itself," he said.

What is that status of negotiations regarding the prisoners?

"Hizbullah became accustomed to using complete secrecy in order to preserve the peace of negotiations and to reach reasonable outcomes. If there will be new developments that need to be exposed to public opinion, Hizbullah will do so. But as long as there is no clear progress that requires media attention, we won't talk about anything and say that there is nothing new."

Will you insist on the release of Arab prisoners, or only Lebanese ones?

"I will not speak in the media regarding conditions of the negotiations. I will leave that for United Nations representatives. If we reach some sort of an agreement, you'll know all the details."

Price of war

Kassem continued to speak of the heavy price Israel paid for last summer's war. "The entire Israeli military establishment suffered a heavy blow. But (Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert also paid a price – support for him dropped to 2 percent. If Olmert falls, it will have implications for the Zionist entity that may not serve America well," he said.

"America sends money and does everything in order to stabilize Olmert, because Olmert proved that he is in its favor and is weaker than ever. We will discover in the future that the outcomes of our victory reach much further.

"That's why I don't think that a collapse of the Israeli government is the only sign. The entire Zionist entity is on the verge of a breakdown," he added.

When asked about the damage sustained by Lebanon, Kassem responded, "we got into this war in order to defend ourselves. What about the damage caused to Israel? The material, spiritual and strategic damage? This is also important.

"Yedioth Aharonoth said that the enemy suffered billions of dollars of damage. In Lebanon, the damages didn't cost more than two billion dollars. Yes, there was damage, but we protected Lebanon from occupation."

Regarding the respective casualty rates, Kassem stated that "Israel had over 100 fatalities. In our opinion, there were many more, but Israel only reported 119. We had some 1,000 killed and some 3,000 injured.

Looking at these numbers comparatively, the Hizbullah leader came to the conclusion that "our small party succeeded in standing against a great enemy.

"We caused them to withdraw from combat and we caused them the greatest defeat since 1948," he alleged.  "Was this simple to do? Of course not."