Lebanon's Hezbollah group on Tuesday accused the Lebanese March 14 majority coalition of seeking to "normalize" relations with Israel and backing an alleged scheme to create a U.S.-controlled Middle East.

Mohammed Raad, leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, said that the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc of Saad Hariri, leader of the parliament majority, "went too far with a scheme to reconcile with the Zionists and the Americans who want to create a new Middle East by describing the resistance weapons as illegitimate."

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."

Raad made the remarks while reading a statement to reporters at Parliament headquarters in downtown Beirut, a few meters from the makeshift tent city erected by the opposition, led by Hezbollah, since Dec. 1 with the declared objective of toppling Premier Fouad Seniora's majority government.

Raad was responding to a statement released late Monday by the Mustaqbal movement which criticized Hezbollah's weapons as "illegitimate."

Hezbollah, which was instrumental in ending Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, says it wants to hold onto its weaponry to liberate Shebaa Farms, a disputed Israeli-occupied border area.

Lebanese dispute has lasted for about five months in which politicians traded insults and their supporters clashed in the streets.

The disputes of the two rival political blocs concentrated on two main issues, namely the opposition's demand for a veto in the government and the majority's demand for the ratification of the international tribunal to probe the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri.

Source: Xinhua