Hizbullah calls Beirut summit
‘disappointing’
Resistance says Jewish state received too many concessions Cilina Nasser
Daily Star staff
Hizbullah officials called the just-concluded Beirut summit a disappointing affair that
made key concessions to Israel and failed to provide adequate support for the Palestinian
cause.
But despite the party’s support for the intifada, this does not require opening a
front in southern Lebanon, Hizbullah MP Mohammed Fneish said.
Commenting on Israel’s reoccupation of West Bank cities on Friday, Fneish told The
Daily Star: “What we will do is use all our efforts to support the intifada. But we
do not have to publicly talk about them.”
Sheikh Hassan Izzeddine, director of Hizbullah’s media relations department, said in
a telephone interview: “Hizbullah cannot distance itself from what is happening in
Palestine and it is watching closely and accurately these developments.”
He did not elaborate on what steps he thought should follow such an examination of the
worsening situation, which included the siege of Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah.
Fneish linked Israel’s wide-scale attacks to the peace initiative endorsed only a day
earlier at the Arab summit.
“This shows that Sharon is indifferent to the Arabs, who stretched their hand out in
peace,” he said.
Fneish denounced the Arab position outlined at the Arab summit in Beirut on Thursday for
“being limited to statements and announcements.”
Fneish also said that the least that Arabs could do was “to sever their relations
(with Israel) and to seriously think of providing considerable financial support” to
the intifada.
“I do not know why Arab states are refraining from sending arms (to the
Palestinians),” he added. “The Arab intelligence (services) do a great job of
smothering the (Arab) people, but they are unable to send arms. Arab states must respond
to (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon.”
Fneish criticized the Arab summit for failing to “come up with a committed program
with clear mechanisms.” He said such a program could have included “ways of
linking economic relations to the interests of the Palestinian cause.”
Although the summit conducted a diplomatic attack by condemning the Israelis, Fneish said
it failed to take any action, asking: “What is the next step?”
For his part, Izzeddine voiced the party’s reservations concerning the
“concessions that appeared in the resolutions (of the summit).” He said the
summit’s demand for an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 meant
that “Arab leaders had abandoned the 1948 territories.”
Another issue was the summit’s offer of normal ties, to which Izzeddine objected,
saying: “We believe that normal ties will lead to normalization, as stated in
international law.”
The summit’s stance on refugees’ right of return prompted Izzeddine to say that
it allowed the resolution to be “debatable on what a just solution for refugees
means.” He said the issue “will not be resolved until the Israelis are
content.”
Asked if the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s political bureau Farouq
Kaddoumi’s visit this week to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah indicated
coordination between the PLO and Hizbullah, Izzeddine said: “The visit came at a time
when Palestinians (faced) difficult circumstances. Therefore, eradicating all marginal and
insignificant issues to serve the main cause is necessary.”
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