Hizballah Chief on Peace
Exclusive Interview with His Eminence Al Sayed Hassan Nassrallah, Secretary General of Hizballah in Lebanon. Conducted by Antoine K. Kehdy, February 2, 2000.
MEI: From the perspective of Hizballah, what are the major issues to be addressed during Lebanon-Israel peace negotiations?
Nassrallah: In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
First of all, we have a point of view regarding the Madrid Conference as a whole and the basis on which the conference was convened. We continue to maintain that point of view. The whole process is unjust, and it cannot culminate in what they call a comprehensive and just peace.
From the moment it was launched, the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948 were relinquished and thus excluded from the peace talks. The Arabs sitting at the negotiation table in Madrid conceded those territories. This is why we consider the peace talks, since the beginning, to be unjust. I wanted to clarify this first, so that our starting position will be known before answering any questions.
What has happened on the Palestinian-Israeli track justifies our reservations and our fears. What has happened until now is not only an abuse of the Arab’s right to the 1948 lands, but also an abuse of their right to the 1967 lands - which are in the process of being abandoned.
On the Lebanese-Israeli track, from our national point of view,
Lebanon should first recover sovereignty over all its territories, without neglecting any. Second, all Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails should be released. Otherwise, the Israeli-Lebanese settlement will have no value. Third, Lebanon has the right to ask for compensation for all the damages and harm which have resulted from Israeli aggressions against Lebanon during the past decades.
Furthermore, Lebanon has the right to ask for punishment of those Israeli officials who should be considered war criminals. Some of the Israeli attacks in south Lebanon were not military campaigns. The massacre in Qana, as well as other massacres perpetrated in the South, should be considered war crimes. These massacres did not happen accidentally or by coincidence, especially regarding Qana. People in the south believed that they were under the protection of the United Nations and UNIFIL. This is one of the main issues that Lebanon is planning to raise, and must raise.
The next issue, which is no less important than the previous ones - if not more important, is the issue of the Palestinian refugees. Lebanon can not enter into any settlement with anybody based on the granting of Lebanese nationality to the 300,000 or 400,000 Palestinians who live on Lebanese territory. There is no way that such a thing can happen. The Lebanese public and official consensus on this issue is to reject the granting of Lebanese nationality to those Palestinians. Settling the Palestinian issue in this way must be totally rejected because of the special circumstances of Lebanon, in addition to its complex confessional structure.
Any settlement that does not take into consideration the issue of the Palestinian refugees endangers the process and will prove to be a time bomb which can explode at any time. That is why we consider this issue to be equal in its importance to the liberation of the Lebanese territories.
Resolving this issue is not only in the interest of Lebanon, but also in the interest of the Palestinians themselves. The Palestinians themselves do not wish to live the kind of life they are living in Lebanon.
MEI: Does Hizballah has any intention to cooperate with the Lebanese government to contribute to an agenda for the negotiations?
Nassrallah: No, there is no such cooperation. Hizballah’s mission is to fight in the south of Lebanon.
MEI: For the first time, a Lebanese president has indicated a correlation between the positions of the Lebanese government and those of the resistance in the South. Will this have a positive impact on the negotiations?
Nassrallah: The Lebanese government knows very well the positions of Hizballah since we have not kept such things a secret. However, Hizballah is in no way ready to enter into discussions of peace or of negotiations. Nor does Hizballah want to weaken the position of Lebanon in the negotiations. Instead, although it rejects the principle of negotiation, Hizballah constitutes a factor of power for the Lebanese in the negotiations.
MEI: Do you think that Iraq and Iran, as well as other Arab countries, should enter the negotiations with Israel along with Lebanon and Syria, so that these negotiations may be more successful?
Nassrallah: Backing from Iraq and Iran - as well as any other Arab or Islamic country - for Lebanon and Syria during this crucial phrase is of major importance. In this way, Lebanon and Syria would have more strength to face the political, economic, moral and social pressures from Israel that aim at weakening them. This would allow them to defend at least their minimum basic needs during these tough negotiations.
MEI: What is Hizballah’s perspective on the issue of the "seven villages?"
Nassrallah: We have asked the Lebanese government to claim its right to recover control over these villages because we consider them to be Lebanese. Therefore, they should be returned to the control of the Lebanese government. If the French granted them to the British, who granted them to Israel, this agreement has no legitimate legal validity.