Sheikh Naim Qassem, second in command of Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah, said Thursday that the party is ready to discuss a national defense strategy, but would not give up "our resistance and our weapons."
"We agree to a defense strategy that enables our army to protect Lebanon and prevent Israeli aggression. Then, the weapons issue would be settled within this defense strategy," Qassem said in a televised interview with local Naharnet news website.
"If we give up our weapons, then who would protect us and protect Lebanon from Israeli aggression?" he stressed.
Qassem also claimed that Hezbollah did not use its weapons to settle internal political differences, but "it is the right of the resistance to defend itself if it was attacked."
Hezbollah was the only Lebanese group which did not have to hand over its weapons in 1989, according to the Saudi-sponsored Taef accord which ended Lebanon's 15 years of civil war.
The Shiite group insisted that it kept its weapons because it was a resistance force against Israeli occupation of the country's south.
Israel pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000, but kept control over the disputed Shebaa farms.
Source:Xinhua
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