Nasrallah
says he did not want war
Sunday 27 August 2006, 21:10 Makka Time,
18:10 GMT
The
leader of Hezbollah has said that he would not have ordered the capture
of two Israeli soldiers had he known that it would trigger such a war.
Hezbollah
fighters killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two more in a cross-border
raid on July 12, provoking a fierce Israeli response resulting in 34 days
of fierce fighting in Lebanon.
"We
did not think, even one per cent, that the capture would lead to a war
at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July
11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say
no, absolutely not," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with
Lebanon's New TV station.
Prisoner
swap
Nasrallah
also said "contacts" for negotiations on a prisoner swap between Israel
and Hezbollah had already begun.
"The
Israelis have acknowledged that this [issue] is headed for negotiations
and a [prisoners] exchange," he said. "Contacts recently began for negotiations."
He
said that that Italy and the United Nations had expressed interest in helping
to mediate.
He
did not specify in which capacity Italy had expressed interest - on its
own or as a mediator for Israel.
Nasrallah
said Nabih Berri, the Lebanese parliament speaker, was in charge of the
negotiations.
UN
deployment
The
Hezbollah leader also said that UN troops preparing to deploy in southern
Lebanon would not encounter any problems as long as their mission did not
involve disarming his fighters.
"We
have no problem with Unifil [UN Interim Force in Lebanon] as long as its
mission is not aimed at disarming Hezbollah," Nasrallah said in the interview.
His
comments came on the eve of a visit to Beirut by Kofi Annan, who was to
discuss with Lebanese leaders the deployment of around 15,000 UN troops
in southern Lebanon and related security matters.
Nasrallah
said he would welcome a meeting with the UN secretary-general and that
contacts had been made towards that end, but he said that nothing had been
finalised for security reasons.
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