Hezbollah chief denies receiving any guidance from Bishara

May 6, 2007, 22:39 GMT

Beirut - Sheikh Hassan Nasarallah, chief of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, denied late Sunday that Arab-Israeli lawmaker Azmi Bishara helped direct Hezbollah militants to target missiles at Israel during the 33-day war in summer 2006.

'Such accusations against Bishara are fabricated and baseless,' said Nasrallah in an interview with Iranian television al-Alam. 'We do not need to be aided by anyone, and with all due respect to Dr Bishara, he is incapable of helping in such a mission.'

Nasrallah said that the Israeli government was using the accusations against Bishara to distract from its own failures in the Lebanon war.

Bishara is accused of treason for allegedly helping Hezbollah direct missiles at 'sensitive military targets' during July and August.

A member of the three-seat Arab Balad party, Bishara disappeared from Israel a few weeks ago and surfaced in late April at the Israeli embassy in Cairo to submit his resignation from the Knesset (Israel's parliament).

Israeli police and the Israeli Shin Bet internal security agency revealed last week that they had launched an investigation against Bishara 18 months ago, long before the war erupted in July 2006.

Authorities claimed to have 'strong evidence,' based on taped telephone conversations between Bishara and Hezbollah intelligence officers, saying they had turned to the Israeli Supreme Court for special permission to wiretap the lawmaker despite his parliamentary immunity.

Bishara held regular telephone contact with the enemy's intelligence, in which he also advised Hezbollah to deepen its missile strikes into Israel, on the mood in the country, and on how to formulate its public statements aimed at Israelis for maximum effect, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.

He is accused of allegedly receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars - suspected as payment for his services - from a Palestinian money exchange office in East Jerusalem via Jordan, delivered to him in envelopes of 50,000 dollars in cash every couple of weeks.

Bishara has denied the charges as 'unbelievable hysteria' and accused Israel of political persecution.

In the same interview, Nasrallah said that Israel's war in Lebanon was 'an American decision,' alleging that this was written in secret parts of the report by the Winograd commission, an Israeli panel that examined the conflict.

'Publishing the secret parts of the Winograd report will reveal that the US administration with the help of some internal Lebanese factions had set the stage for Lebanon's war last summer,' Nasrallah said.

The Winograd commission of inquiry's interim report last week accused Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of a 'serious failure,' of acting 'hastily' and personally contributing to 'over ambitious' and unfeasible war aims. The report has left Olmert battling to stay in officer amid a chorus of voices in Israel demanding his resignation.

Israel launched a widescale against Lebanon offensive on July 12, 2006, after Hezbollah guerrillas snatched two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack in south Lebanon.