Sneh: Israel not aware of Hezbollah claims to hold soldiers' remains

A senior Israeli lawmaker said Thursday that Israel had no knowledge of Hezbollah claims that the Lebanese militia is holding the remains of Israeli troops killed in Lebanon.

"We have no knowledge of such a thing," Ephraim Sneh, a member of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee told Israel Radio of Nasrallah's claim that he sought to trade for the soldiers' remains.

Israel is thought to be holding at least seven Lebanese prisoners.

In October Israel traded a Hezbollah captive and the bodies of two Lebanese fighters for the body of an Israeli civilian drowned off Israel's coast and washed ashore in Lebanon.

In a televised interview, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his group was holding the remains of Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed in Israel's war against Hezbollah in 2006. He also alleged that Israel is dragging its feet in prisoner swap negotiations to free two captured Israeli soldiers.

"There are body parts left behind by the Israelis of their soldiers on southern Lebanese territory," Nasrallah said in an interview with the private Lebanese NBN television broadcast Wednesday night.

"We offered during the negotiations to return them but the Israeli side was not interested in this issue."

In Wednesday's interview, Nasrallah said UN-mediated negotiations to swap the Lebanese captives for the two Israeli soldiers were still going on and he expected that within three weeks it would be clearer it those talks would bear fruit.

Nasrallah also said that Israel is behind the series of political assassinations in Lebanon that has targeted lawmakers and other public figures. He alleges the attacks were carried out in order to sow strife between the country's various factions.

"Israel has the most to gain by these assassinations," Nasrallah said. "It wants to tear Lebanon from Syria - and prove Lebanon can't take care of its own security so that security agencies will be in charge of security here, like in Iraq."

During the interview that was aired simultaneously on both Lebanon's NBN and Hezbolllah's station Al-Manar, he denied claims that his terrorist organization took orders from its ally Iran, saying it reached its decisions independently.

"It's a lie propagated by the media," he said about Iran's alleged influence over his group. ""We influence Iranian policy in the region more than they do us."

Turning to the U.S., Nasrallah claimed Washington was interested in establishing a foothold in Lebanon in order to impose peace with Israel, eliminate Hezbollah, and "destroy the Palestinian refugees' right of return by settling them in Lebanon."

On the issue of the political crisis in Lebanon, Nasrallah declared that no president will be elected in the country unless the Syrian-backed opposition gets a veto power in the future government.

He charged that the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority is to blame for creating the current presidential deadlock by refusing a partnership with the Hezbollah-led opposition.

"A solution lies in a partnership through a constitutional guarantee [and] through a veto power for the opposition, which represents more than half of the Lebanese people," said Nasrallah.

He said his party supported Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman for president to replace pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose term ended on November 23 without a successor being chosen.

"But Suleiman's election," he said, "will not solve the problem without a national unity government in which the opposition gets a veto power."

A parliamentary session to elect Lebanon's president was postponed for the 11th time on December 28, with feuding factions deadlocked over a constitutional amendment and the shape of a future government. A new parliament session has been set for January 12.

The crisis over the presidency has capped a yearlong power struggle between anti-Syrian politicians, who hold a slim majority in parliament and support the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, and the opposition, led by Hezbollah.

Nasrallah blamed the deadlock on the ruling coalition, which wants to fully control authority and rejects partnership with the other party.

"Today, the real problem is the principle of partnership. A veto power means that the opposition becomes a partner (in government)," Nasrallah said.

Lawmakers on both sides have agreed to back Suleiman as a compromise candidate, but parliament must first amend the constitution to allow a sitting military chief to become president.

This process has been complicated by the opposition's demand for a new unity government that would give it veto power over major decisions. Opposition boycotts have thwarted attempts to choose a president by preventing a two-thirds quorum.

	Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (AP)