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Hezbollah chief says to abide by ceasefire brokered by UN
13/8/2006 10:25

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that his group would abide by any ceasefire brokered by the United Nations, but it would continue to fight until Israel's withdrawal.

"The group would abide by a ceasefire brokered by UN chief Kofi Annan or an agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel," Nasrallah said in a televised speech on the group's al-Manar television.

He said that Hezbollah would cooperate with Lebanese and UN troops to be deployed in south Lebanon in line with a UN Security Council resolution.

The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution that calls for Israel's withdrawal and authorizes an increase of the existing UN force in Lebanon to 15,000 troops to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

"We have said before that we agree on the deployment of the Lebanese army supported by UNIFIL forces," he said, while vowing to fight against Israeli troops operating in south Lebanon.

He also said that Hezbollah had some reservations over the resolution, which considered Hezbollah as instigator but did not mention Israel's massacres in the conflict, including killing of civilians and destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure.

As for an expanded Israeli incursion into south Lebanon, he said that Israel needed a military achievement before the war ended, because it realized that it did not achieve any of goals.

Israel has been battling Hezbollah since the Shiite group abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid one month ago.



Xinhua News