US, Israel In Plot To Divide Region

Web posted at: 6/19/2009 9:7:23
Source ::: DPA
Courtesy Of The Peninsula OnLine

Beirut: The leader of the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, charged yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech contained the seeds of an Israeli-US “scheme” being plotted against the Mideast region.

“What is happening in the region is a US-Israeli plan. There is a scheme with a clear division of roles between the US and Israel to divide the Arab region,” Nasrallah said during a night rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“We should defend our country against what is being plotted for the region ... which includes a possible relocation of the 1948 Palestinians to Lebanon,” Nasrallah said.

Premier Netanyahu last Sunday offered conditional support for the establishment of a Palestinian state and refused to bring a halt to divisive expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The Israeli premier said the Palestinian refugee problem would have to be resolved outside the Israeli state, but he did not mention relocating refugees to Lebanon, so it was unclear what Nasrallah was referring to.

He also imposed new conditions on peace talks, demanding that Palestinians explicitly recognise Israel as a Jewish state and agree not to have an army. On Monday, Lebanon’s President Michel Suleiman described Netanyahu’s stance as “rigid.”

He called on the world community to “further press the Israeli government to accept just and peaceful initiatives.”

Beirut backs a 2002 Saudi peace plan that offers Israel full normalisation of ties with Arab countries in return for a withdrawal from Arab land seized in the 1967 Six-Day War, and a return of Palestinian refugees to their ancestral homes.