Hezbollah stage massive mourning rally for Gaza

Dec 29, 2008, 13:19 GMT

Beirut - The Lebanese Shiite Movement Hezbollah staged Monday a mourning rally in Beirut's southern suburbs for the victims of the Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Hezbollah followers gathered at a football field carrying Hezbollah and Palestinian flags and chanting 'Death to Israel, Death to America.'

The crowd also changed 'God bless Nasrallah and Gaza' as the Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah appeared on a television screen to address them for the second day in a row.

'Gaza is not alone..and the people of Gaza are not alone,' Nasrallah said in an angry voice. 'We are gathering here today to mourn the victims of Gaza who are falling on the hands of the ugliest enemy.

'God bless Gaza victims...they are the martyrs of the pride of a nation,' Nasrallah said.

He called on Lebanese President Michel Suleiman to exert pressure on Arab countries to hold an emergency Arab summit meeting.

Nasrallah also blasted the United States, charging that 'the US does not mind who governs at any Arab capital, the US does not mind what president is in power whether Islamic, nationalist or communist; what matters to the US is that you (Arab countries) provide them with cheap oil.'

According to the London-based Al Hayat newspaper Lebanon was reluctant to accept an invitation to attend an emergency Arab summit in Doha next Friday to discuss the massive Israeli military operation in Gaza.

Suleiman had received a telephone call from Qatar's Emir inviting him to take part in the summit.

Premier Fouad Seniora and Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh received similar calls.

Al-Hayat, citing ministerial sources, said that Lebanon's reluctance about accepting invitation was because most Arab countries had until now not decided.

Lebanon was awaiting an Arab ministerial meeting in Cairo on Wednesday before taking any decision, al-Hayat cited the sources as saying.