BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has accused the U.S. of seeking to normalize ties between the Zionist regime and Lebanon.
The accusation comes amid indirect talks between Beirut and the occupying regime to settle a maritime dispute.
“The maritime demarcation is the responsibility of the state, but what we are worried about is attempts to use the issue for talks with the Israeli side,” Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammad Raad told a rally in southern Lebanon.
“U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is trying to promote this through his proposals,” he added.
On Saturday, the Lebanese government formed an 8-member committee to review a proposal submitted by Hochstein for maritime demarcation with the occupying regime.
Lebanon and Israel are in a dispute about a maritime area that is 860 square kilometers (332 square miles), according to maps sent by both counties to the UN in 2011.
The area is rich in natural gas and oil. Five sessions were held between Lebanon and the Zionist regime under UN sponsorship and U.S. mediation. The last round of talks was in May but it was stalled because of major differences.
Meanwhile, a high-ranking Hezbollah official said the United States is desperately seeking to change the Arab nation’s identity, but all such attempts will fail in the face of popular resistance and steadfastness.
Vice President of the Executive Council of Hezbollah Sheikh Ali Damoush made the remarks during a ceremony in Deir Qanoun En Nahr municipality in southern Lebanon on Saturday evening.
He said a number of candidates running for office in the forthcoming parliamentary elections are not concerned about Lebanon’s economic and financial crisis, and are instead trying frantically to confront Hezbollah as ordered by the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
“Enemies mobilized all their media and political capacities to tarnish the image of Hezbollah, and pit the Lebanese nation against the resistance movement. They, however, failed and it was Hezbollah that surprised everyone in the face of the economic war and the amount of services it provided to ordinary people in the fields of foodstuff, healthcare and fuel supplies,” Sheikh Damoush pointed out.
The Hezbollah official also said that Washington wants to change Lebanon’s identity and plunge it in a state of weakness and inability in order to dominate it.