Hizbullah adopts wait-and-see posture on south Lebanon

The Shia Hizbullah movement fighting Israel in south Lebanon has dropped its pledge to end its war of liberation once the Jewish state withdraws from the occupation zone.

"We will not say one word about what we will do until Israel makes a complete withdrawal," Mr Ibrahim Musawi, a Hizbullah spokesman told The Irish Times. And then Hizbullah "will see if any of Israel's conditions are met" by the UN or Beirut. Hizbullah demands that the withdrawal should be unconditional as well as total. "People cannot occupy other people's land and put conditions on withdrawal," he said.

"We will not close our file until we see what the Israelis will do about our water, our soil, the fields they burnt, compensation for destruction. We have a full file. In it are our secret cards which give strength to the Lebanese government, to the resistance."

This wait-and-see posture amounts to an abrupt shift from the stand taken by Hizbullah a year ago when Israel first announced its intention of withdrawing from south Lebanon. At that time Hizbullah said hostilities would end once Israel departed.

It also said that none of its fighters or political organisers would enter areas returned to Lebanese sovereignty. The latter still holds true. "Once these fall under the Lebanese army and civilian rule we will not enter," Mr Musawi said.

"We think the Israelis have a big problem in the south of Lebanon. Our forces are well trained, they are growing maturer and maturer. The Israelis are suffering from loss of life and deteriorating morale among their troops and the SLA because we have made a successful intensification of our hits against them."

So far this year six members of the Israeli army, including a colonel and a general, had been killed and more than a dozen Israelis injured in attacks by the Hizbullah-led resistance, he went on.

"Sooner or later they are going to leave, but leaving the south involves lots of problems for them because it will encourage other people [the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza] to revolt. If they withdraw completely from the occupied land under the hits of the resistance, how will they justify the 22-year occupation of south Lebanon? So they have to find a way to take a certain price for withdrawal."

This price, he said, included direct negotiations with the Lebanese government, the integration of SLA members into the Lebanese army and Lebanon's assumption of responsibility for the security of northern Israel.

Both Hizbullah and the Lebanese government have rejected Israel's price and demanded an unconditional withdrawal in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425 of 1978. Under Israel's conditions "withdrawal endangers Lebanon's sovereignty", Mr Musawi said, because "Israel seeks to dictate to Lebanon how many soldiers it can deploy along the frontier and where they are put".

Hizbullah's military successes bolstered by popular clinics and schools, financial support for the families of "martyrs" and a programme for rebuilding civilian homes destroyed by Israel have made the movement the most respected political party on the Lebanese scene. "Hizbullah is free of corruption, it keeps its word, it helps the people. Those words sum up the movement. And, Lebanese say proudly, "Hizbullah is liberating the south".