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Hezbollah on Tuesday accused moderate Arab states and the Lebanese March 14 majority coalition of selling out Palestine, seeking to "normalize" relations with Israel and backing an alleged scheme to create a U.S.-controlled Middle East. The Hezbollah position was announced by Mohammed Raad, leader of the party's parliamentary bloc, in a statement to reporters at Parliament headquarters in downtown Beirut, a few meters from the makeshift tent city erected by the opposition since Dec. 1 with the declared objective of toppling Premier Fouad Siniora's majority government. Raad was responding to a statement released late Monday by the Moustaqbal ( Future) movement of MP Saad Hariri, a leader of the March 14 majority which criticized Hezbollah's weapons as "illegitimate."Raad said the Moustaqbal parliamentary bloc "by describing the resistance weapons as illegitimate went too far with a scheme to reconcile with the Zionists and the Americans who want to create a new Middle East." Such a new Middle East, according to Raad, "is based on recognizing the Zionist entity's (right to exist), normalizing relations with it and abolishing any opposition to or resistance of Israeli aggressions."
He charged that "most Arab regimes seek to normalize relations with the Zionist entity." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had vowed that "a new Middle East would be created, but not the one that America wants." Raad noted that the Arab peace plan, reactivated by the recent summit held at the Saudi capital of Riyadh in March is based on the original blueprint adopted in Beirut in 2002. "The original text involved concessions that are a precedent in recognizing the legitimacy of the Zionist occupation of the 1948 lands and reflected a decision to negotiate over the lands occupied in 1967," Raad said. "We will not discuss this Arab viewpoint, but describing the resistance weapons as illegitimate falls in line with the Israeli stand and the American stand. This requires explanation not just by this bloc (Moustaqbal) but by its higher authorities and masters and its masses," Raad added.
The Moustaqbal bloc's stand, according to Raad, is "very serious at the strategic level and casts doubt about the feasibility of any dialogue." He also charged the parliamentary majority of pushing the international tribunal's law to the U.N. Security Council to be approved under chapter seven of the international organization's charter. "Chapter seven will not solve the Lebanese people's problem. The tribunal is not the problem. The problem is in the government," Raad said in reference to demands by the Hezbollah-led opposition to control veto powers in any new government.
The opposition which is backed by Syria and funded by Iran does not control majority of parliament's 128-seats. The Hezbollah MP said approving the international tribunal by the U.N. Security Council under chapter seven is tantamount to "placing Lebanon under an international mandate."
He vowed that Hezbollah will declare its position regarding such an international resolution on time. However, he asked the Lebanese people: "where would our sovereignty be if Lebanon becomes open to all intelligence agencies of the world?"
Many reactions are expected to follow Hezbollah announcement on the Arab peace plan. This is the same position taken by Hamas . Both Hamas and Hezbollah are funded by Iran.