Nasrallah replied to Bush's overture with toughness. "I am firm in keeping our arms because I believe the resistance is the best option for defending Lebanon against Israeli threats," the Hezbollah leader said in an interview with Al Manar. The party would keep its guns, he said, "as long as Lebanon is threatened, even if we remain threatened for a million years."
But his response wasn't as absolute as it sounded. Nasrallah did indicate that Hezbollah might one day be willing to discuss disarmament, but only with fellow Lebanese, not with Americans or other foreigners.
A defiant Nasrallah recently made it plain that his militias would keep their weapons even if Israel were to abandon Shebaa Farms, a disputed tract near the Israeli border whose occupation Hezbollah has used to justify its armed posture.
Party officials point out that Hezbollah prisoners remain in Israeli jails and that Israel continues to breach Lebanese airspace. Hezbollah officials say they need their guns to prevent the permanent settlement of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and to guard against Israeli attacks."When these questions are all answered, then we don't have a problem discussing disarmament," said Abdallah Kassir, a bespectacled Hezbollah lawmaker from the southern city of Tyre. "When we say now that we're ready for dialogue, even on the question of disarmament, we're reasserting that we carried weapons to liberate our land, and that cause is not over with."
On the same topic see the Boston Globe.
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