Hezbollah backed over Shebaa farms

12/08/2008| IslamWeb

Lebanon's new government has won a vote of confidence, approving a policy statement recognizing Hezbollah's right to use all means possible to regain Israeli-occupied land claimed by Lebanon.

 

One hundred members of the 128-seat parliament voted in support of the cabinet proposal on Tuesday, allowing the cabinet to finally start work.

 

"One hundred MPs have given their confidence to the cabinet, five voted against and two abstained," Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker, announced to the assembly.

 

The policy statement recognizes the right of Lebanon, its government, people and armed movements to use all means possible to regain land claimed by Lebanon, a reference to the Shebaa Farms and nearby Israeli-held parts of Ghajjar village.

 

Israel and the UN say Shebaa, occupied during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, is Syrian.

 

Damascus and Beirut, which never demarcated borders, claim it is Lebanese.

 

Hezbollah's weapons

 

The policy statement was discussed in five days of parliamentary debate which underlined a wide divide over Hezbollah's arsenal.

 

The ruling majority, backed by the West and most Sunni-led Arab states, nevertheless insists on Hezbollah's disarmament, a move Hezbollah and its political allies reject.

 

Hezbollah's weapons will be discussed at a later date as part of a "national defense strategy" during a national dialogue to be chaired by Michel Sleiman, Lebanon's president.

 

The national dialogue is part of the Qatari-mediated deal that ended Lebanon's political conflict.

 

The policy statement also emphasized the government's commitment to a UN Security Council resolution that ended a 34-day war in 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel.

 

It also adopted changes to economic policies agreed at an international aid conference held in Paris in 2007.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

Lebanese parliament  

 

Al-Jazeera