ILC1559

Nasrallah's recent statements are in direct violation of UNSCR's 1559 and 1701

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Press release

Press Release: Nasrallah is breaching UN resolutions with weapons declaration

Washington, 16th of February 2009

Commenting on Hezbollah Secretary General speech today, NGO leader Tom Harb said the United Nations must take note of Hassan Nasrallah's statement that his militia will acquire or maybe has acquired anti aircraft batteries. Harb, who serves as the Secretary General of the Lebanese International Committee for the Implementation of the UNSCR 1559 (ILC-1559), said "we heard loud and clear through international and local media that Mr. Nasrallah doesn't want to abide by a binding UN resolution calling on all militias including his to disarm. Worse, Mr. Nasrallah said in public that he has obtained, will deploy and he will use anti aircraft weapons systems on Lebanese territories. This is a flagrant breach of UNSCR 1559 and 1701 which calls clearly for the disarming and discontinuing of arms shipments."

Harb, who monitors the application of the UN resolution on behalf of an international non Governmental Organization and briefs the United Nations missions and the US and European Governments on all issues related to these resolutions said "the international community is in obligation to ask the Lebanese Government to investigate Mr. Nasrallah's statements and must send a fact finding mission to Lebanon to check the reception and deployment of these forbidden weapons." Harb added that the UNIFIL, which insures the implementation of UNSCR 1701, must conduct its own investigation in the areas of its own deployment while the Lebanese Army, under UNSCR 1559, must investigate the deployment of these weapons in the rest of the country." He added: "The UN is spending significant amounts on deploying UN troops in Lebanon. The Nasrallah statements ridicule the UN Security Council by asserting that he will breach UN resolutions which are being implemented by the UNIFIL."

Mr. Harb said the NGO will initiate a series of letters, and meetings in the goal of addressing this challenge. "Besides, we have been contacted by a number of local civil society NGOs in Lebanon who expressed their concerns about Nasrallah's weapons statements. They told us that they would be willing to volunteer to scout the country to find these weapons. But they said they are intimidated by Hezbollah's militias which arrest, kidnap and jail Lebanese citizens after they accuse them of being agents to Israel." 

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