UNIFIL is to protect Lebanon from occupation, Hizbullah

Hizbullah will not forsake one span of Lebanese territories, Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General his Eminence Sheikh Nahim Qassem said.

The Shibaa farms and the disputed border areas are Lebanese territories that we will fight to recover if ""Israel"" does not withdraw from them, he added.

Speaking at a rally in the southern town of Rshaf to mark the passage of one week since the martyrdom of Sheikh of the Resistance Men Ahmed Yahia Hamad Abu Zar, Qassem said, "The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is required to deploy (in south Lebanon) to protect Lebanon from air, ground and sea aggressions."

"UNIFIL is not supposed to ask Lebanon for security guarantees to protect itself, for if it (UNIFIL) needs protection from the Lebanese army and state, then what is its nole? Is it a protector or a force to be protected? " he asked.

"Lebanon needs guarantees that no more "Israeli" aggressions will be launched against it, because it has been the oppressed and the suffering party whose land was ravished and whose people were killed. Lebanon has no guarantees to give to anyone."

Sheikh Qassem said it was strange how some are constantly talking about concern.

It seems that concern in the statements is much more than that on the ground, he said, adding, "however, if some want to reassure the collaborators, I affirm that the collaborators can never be reassured, and must always be anxious."

The collaborators must be tried and punished severely to understand that treason is not acceptable and in order to bar anyone from being enticed into viewing collaboration with the "Israeli" enemy as an easy matter, he said.

"Such punishment will be a grace for the country and the society. No one can ask for pardon, leniency or not trying the collaborators, for they are criminals and killers."

Not taking them to courts will serve as an invitation to others to become collaborators especially as ""Israel's"" threat is permanent and its projects are ongoing incessantly, the deputy secretary-general said.

Qassem called for taking the required interest in Rshaf and the other liberated towns to erase some of the suffering they had been living over the past years.

Manar TV, 5-6-2000.