07/02/2008 Head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP General Michel Aoun joined together for a special interview Wednesday night on Orange TV. Both leaders were marking the second anniversary of the Memorandum of understanding which they signed in the Mar Mekhayel Church in the southern suburb of Beirut. Colleague Jean Aziz who hosted Sayyed Nasrallah and General Aoun asked about their first contact. “My first contact with General Aoun was in September 1997. He spoke to me on telephone and offered his condolences for the martyrdom of my son (Hadi). However the first political contact between Hezbollah and the FPM had been made in different times,” Sayyed Nasrallah said. The last time I sat with Sayyed Nasrallah was in last November,” General Aoun said.
 
Both Leaders had their say about many issues, including the arms of the resistance, the recent incidents in Mar Mekhayel on the Black Sunday, the Arab initiative and the understanding between their parties.
 
RESISTANCE ARMS MAKE FEAR BALANCE WITH ISRAEL
Sayyed Nasrallah said that the arms in possession of Hezbollah are not arms of a militia. "It is the arms of the resistance that is characterized as such through the group that is carrying it. When the enemy is faced with these arms for a national cause like liberating occupied lands, then this is called 'arms of the resistance.' The Israeli army withdrew from most of our territories in 2000, there remained some occupied lands and there remained Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails. We have protected our border, people and villages with a balance of fear from 2000 till 2006," Sayyed Nasrallah said.
 
For his part, General Aoun said that the arms are to defend Lebanon. "Therefore, the arsenal is not to liberate the prisoners alone. These prisoners are the result of war and resistance and they constitute one of the battle's outcomes on the road to liberating the land," General Aoun said.
When asked about who would possess the decision of peace and war and what would the function of the arms of the resistance be when everything is over, the FPM chief said that these issues were to be included in a defensive strategy agreed upon by all Lebanese parties where it not for the war that froze everything.
 
Sayyed Nasrallah elaborated saying that the arms of the resistance were protecting the country until the 2006 war, "and as the war was blazing, they (ruling bloc) wanted to disarm us. The problem is not with the arms. Fix the problem that resulted in the existence of these arms. Here lies the importance of the understanding. It did not perceive the arms of the resistance as the problem, it said: protecting Lebanon its independence and sovereignty are a national obligation and responsibility that is guaranteed by international charters and the declaration of human rights particularly in the face of any threat o dangers. So we started from here: How do we protect the country? We agreed that there should be national dialogue to agree on a comprehensive defensive strategy. Of course there are some who are not interested in defending this country. A strong, capable and reassuring state protects its people; it does not conspire on them to kill them, wipe them out, eliminate them and cancel them. I was celebrating victory when I said that we do not want to keep our arms forever. These arms have a certain function. If someone other than us would come and assume this function and protect our people and this country, then we would be very satisfied because we have many other things to do," his eminence said.
 
General Aoun also said that "when we want to implement a defensive strategy along with the Lebanese government, the liberation of the Shebaa Farms and the prisoners in Israeli jails would have been accomplished. From that point forward, the arms would be controlled within resistance units, because the resistance is mainly dependent on the residents of border villages and based on military forces. We would then be in state of defense, not in the process of liberating lands. As long as there is a standing enemy, what's wrong with have a defensive system ready?" asked General Aoun.
 
RESISTANCE WANTS TO PREVENT WAR, YET READY FOR IT
Hezbollah's Secretary General said that going to war is dependent on many factors as well as regional and international circumstances. "It is also subject to the Israeli army's capability to fight another war and to the existence of a political leadership in Israel that would take the decision to go to war," Sayyed Nasrallah said. His eminence recalled one of his speeches in which he announced the possession of rockets that can target any spot in occupied Palestine and said that this was to express readiness and to prevent war. "After the issuance of the Winograd report many senior Israeli officers are saying that if Israel decided to go to war, it should take into account not only the displacement of Haifa, Akko and Tiberias residents but the lack of any safe spot in Israel as well. Israel needs war to enhance its deterrent capability. It will not go for a war it is not certain of its results. This is the margin that we have to make use of to prevent such war on Lebanon and its people," he added.
 
UNDERSTANDING ESTABLISHED INNER PEACE
General Aoun answered a question about what the memorandum of understanding between the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah has achieved so far. "It accomplished something great," he said. "Perhaps this is the greatest accomplishment in Lebanon. It established the culture of understanding to build Lebanon, not a policy of fear from the other, confrontation with him and isolation in a religious cocoon. It also established social peace on the popular level. Nevertheless, the political competition remained. But the other side considered the memorandum a document of war. It was attacked regionally and internationally, we were engaged in media battles and we were accused of being part of an axis against another axis. I don't see any axis in the document. I only see an understanding among the Lebanese," General Aoun added.
 
"This understanding established inner peace, it is a kernel for a broader national accord", Sayyed Nasrallah said. "When the incident of Mar Mekhayel happened on that black Sunday, they (February 14) were trying to say that the understanding had fallen apart, but we say that sedition was prevented because of this understanding and I do not mean the three-and-a-half page document but the work that was done during the past two years," his eminence added.
 
On the 27th of January, seven people were killed and fifty others were injured during demonstrations in the Mar Mekhayel region against electricity cut. Judiciary and military Investigations are still underway into the incident and Lebanese army officers and soldiers have been arrested.
 
"I would like to underscore the seriousness of the investigation and the removing any cover on any individual. Every incident has its circumstances, but this incident is different. I can assure you that we will follow up this case day and night. This is central to us and will remain so until the investigation reaches a conclusion and the people involved are accused and sentenced. This way, we would be protecting the country and creating agreement," Sayyed Nasrallah said.
 
On targeting the Lebanese army and the military institution, his eminence said that "I clearly and boldly say that we adhere to the military institution and we consider any assault against any officer or soldier to be an assault against the resistance and the martyrs of Mar Mekhayel."
 
Responding to media reports that the opposition would withdraw its support for the presidential candidacy of the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), General Michel Suleiman, over Black Sunday, Aoun said that so long as agreement was reached on the makeup of a new Cabinet and the terms of a new electoral law, Suleiman was still acceptable as a consensus candidate.
Sayyed Nasrallah agreed, adding that Suleiman needed to ensure a "swift and serious" investigation into Black Sunday in order to preserve both national unity and that of the LAF.
"Any attempt to evict the opposition from decision-making is unacceptable," Aoun added.
Hezbollah's Secretary General for his part insisted that two-thirds minority in any new government "is the mechanism that guarantees building trust" with the ruling bloc in Lebanon.
 
Arab League chief Amr Moussa was due to return to Beirut on Thursday after two previous mediation trips last month during which he proposed a three-point rescue plan.
The initiative calls for the election of army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government in which no one party has a veto power, and the adoption of a new electoral law.
 
Sayyed Nasrallah expressed support to every initiative to solve the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon. "I would like to quote something from the Winograd report: The strategic problem today in Israel is the lack of political leadership. And I say that the strategic problem in Lebanon today is the lack of trust," the Hezbollah chief said.