Hezbollah Refutes US Accusation of Military ActionA leader of Hezbollah, a radical anti-Israeli guerrilla group in Lebanon, Sunday refuted America's accusation of its military action in the disputed Shebaa Farms.Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary-General Sheik Naim Qassem said that the military action is "a Jihad movement" that expressed the resistance's resolution to liberate the occupied lands from the Israeli enemy, official NNA news agency reported. Last Friday, Hezbollah detonated two road bombs in the Shebaa Farms, which killed one Israeli soldiers and wounded two others. US Ambassador to Lebanon David Satilfild said such an action " was a very serious breach and defiant movement" to international resolutions. The US diplomat also expressed his country's concern over the situation in south Lebanon and urged all sides to exercise the most restraint. Qassem retorted that the attack "was not a defiant movement" but a defense of Lebanese land and the right of resistance. He stressed that the resistance will not halt the fight against Israel even if the U.S. uses "Carrot and Stick policy" on Lebanon. He also said that in Hezbollah's dictionary there is not the word of "Blue Line," the U.N.-demarcated border line between Israel and Lebanon after Israeli withdrew its troops from south Lebanon last May after a 22-year occupation. "We only know and respect the saying of 'border' and the Blue Line is a service for Jewish authority," he was quoted as saying by NNA. The line excludes the Shebaa Farms from Lebanese territory although Syria and Lebanon have said it belongs to Lebanon. The U. N. regards the farms as Syria's land occupied by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war and the fate of the land would be decided in future Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations. |
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