West targets Hezbollah to favor Israel

Leader of Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun has accused the West of efforts to eliminate Hezbollah to help Israel implement its plans in the country.

“They want to kill the Resistance which is an obstacle in the face of Israel,” the Naharnet news portal quoted Aoun as saying on Sunday.

“The first decision they want to implement is naturalization (of Palestinians), but as long as there is a resisting people there is no naturalization,” Aoun said at Saint Takla church in Bkessine in the town of Jezzine.

The Lebanese politician was referring to thousands of Palestinian refugees who live in Lebanon, hoping to return to their homeland in the Israeli occupied territories.

Aoun recalled the “lies” the US administration used in order to launch the war against Iraq in 2003, warning of new lies aimed at thwarting the prosecution of false witnesses in former prime minister Rafiq Hariri’s assassination case.

“What would prevent the Security Council and the international community from coming up with a new lie and covering up the truth by preventing the prosecution of false witnesses?” he questioned.

Western-backed factions in Lebanon had accused Syria and Hezbollah resistance movement of involvement in Hariri’s murder in a 2005 bomb attack that also killed more than 20 others in Beirut.

Early in September, however, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that he had made a mistake in accusing Syria of the murder of his father, acknowledging the charges were politically motivated.

On Sunday, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the movement’s demands focused on uncovering false witnesses and their masters, and revealing Israel’s role in the killing of Hariri based on the evidence provided by Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah.

“Cross-examining false witnesses is the only gate to uncovering the truth,” noted Sheikh Qassem, saying, “those concerned should discuss the accusation” against Israel.

He also warned that targeting the resistance movement was tantamount to targeting Lebanon and the Middle East region.