France warns against Hezbollah arms in Lebanon

[tocqueville]

by Herve Asquin
2 hours, 54 minutes ago

NAQURA, Lebanon (AFP) - French President Jacques Chirac has warned against a continued Hezbollah armed presence in southern Lebanon where his defense minister visited UN forces overseeing the ceasefire with Israel.

Chirac, whose country leads the UN forces in southern Lebanon, said the Shiite group should be disarmed in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that brought an end on August 14 to the 34-day war with Israel.

His remarks came as his defense minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, travelled to southern Lebanon on Monday to review the movement of French troops with the multinational UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

"It is absolutely normal to have a current which expresses politically what the Hezbollah part of Lebanese public opinion thinks," Chirac said in a radio interview in Paris.

"What is unacceptable is to express it by the use of force, with armed militias," he told Europe 1 radio.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060918/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanon

[Vidar]

1. France seems nearly alone in really working for peace