Hizbullah: Lebanese government declared war on us
Hizbullah Chief Hassan Nasrallah vows to fight any attempts to disarm Hizbullah militants, claiming their right to self-defense. 'The hand raised against us, we will cut it off,' he says
Hizbullah's leader said Thursday that the Lebanese government declared war by deeming the Shiite militant group's private telecommunications network illegal and a threat to state security.
Hizbullah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah vowed to fight any attempts to disarm Hizbullah militants saying: "Those who try to arrest us, we will arrest them. Those who shoot at us, we will shoot at them. The hand raised against us, we will cut it off.”
Celebratory gunfire rang out in Beirut as Nasrallah spoke by videolink from a hiding place in remarks broadcast live on television. The Hizbullah leader rarely appears in public for fear of assassination by Israel.
Lebanon's US-backed government on Tuesday declared Hizbullah's military telecommunications network illegal and said it was a threat to state security.
The government also said it would dismiss the security chief of the country's only international airport because he was suspected of ties to Iranian and Syrian-backed Hizbullah.
Those decisions sparked sectarian clashes between supporters of Hizbullah and the government over the past two days. The violence emerged out of a long-simmering power struggle between the Hizbullah-led opposition and the western-backed government for control of the country.
"The decision is tantamount to a declaration of war ... On the resistance and its weapons in the interest of America and Israel," Nasrallah said.
He offered a way out of latest crisis, saying the “Illegitimate” government must revoke its decisions
against Hizbullah; and adding the telecommunications network was "the most important part of the weapons of the resistance" and added Hizbullah had a duty to defend those weapons.
Hizbullah runs its own secure network of primitive private land lines. Nasrallah claimed the network helped the guerrillas fight Israel's hi-tech army in the 2006 summer war.
He and other Hizbullah leaders have suggested they are regularly targeted by Israel and they need secure communications.
"I am not declaring war. I am declaring a decision of self-defense," He said. The government has "Crossed all the red lines. We will not be lenient with anyone."
