Past them lies what is known here as the land of resistance – the villages where the Shia militant group Hezbollah controls hearts and minds.

From here, its fighters battled Israel in a fierce conflict in 2006 and now the portraits of Hezbollah fighters killed in that war look down from the roadside billboards.

Some look straight at Israel, which stretches just a couple of hundred of yards away beyond the barbed wire.

Hezbollah’s turn

During the war in Gaza, Israeli officials warned Hezbollah that after Hamas it would be their turn. And so what is happening on the other side of the border concerns everyone in Lebanon.

In Yareen, a small village, a mullah’s voice echoes through the dusty narrow streets. He describes the suffering in Gaza and calls on his followers to pray for the Palestinians.

But it has not been just about the prayers. Twice in the last week, unknown militants launched rockets across the border and Israel retaliated with artillery fire.

It is not clear who was behind the attack. What is clear is that it is a response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

High up in the hills, surrounded by olive groves, UN peacekeepers patrol the patch of land from where rockets were launched.

Little boys from the nearby village hide in bushes and shoot their toy guns at the peacekeepers. “Ciao” – they laugh and shout to the Italian soldiers.

Peacekeepers

For the past two years, 13,000 peacekeepers from 28 countries have been deployed in South Lebanon.

They are working together with the Lebanese army.

Since the conflict in Gaza began, they have found several small stockpiles of rockets. After the first attack, they deployed additional troops.

“We’ve intensified the patrols that we are conducting with the Lebanese army to keep this area safe,” says Yasmina Bouzeian, a spokesperson for the UN force, Unifil.

But the measures that the UN and the Lebanese army are taking failed to prevent a second attack just days later.

Harsh rhetoric

Hezbollah – which always claims responsibility for its actions – says it is not behind these rockets, and some analysts believe that whoever is behind the attack may be trying to drag Hezbollah into the fight.

Nevertheless, the party’s rhetoric has been harsh and militant.

In Beirut last week, tens of thousands came out to celebrate the Shia festival of Ashura and to show their support for the Palestinians in Gaza.

Helzbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addressed the crowd via a videolink. He announced that he was ready for another war, and Israel too has said that its prepared to fight the group.

So far Hezbollah has clearly restrained its fighters from taking military action. But if hostilities break out, it is not only Mr Nasrallah’s supporters who say they will stand behind him.

“I am a Sunni, and I thought that Hezbollah was wrong to fight the 2006 war but if Nasrallah goes to war now, I will support him. What has happened in Gaza is not human,” said one man who lost his family in 2006 and who did not want to be named.

Anger and fear

But while there is a clear sense of anger here, in the South there is also plenty of fear.

Seated on a low plastic chair in front his house, Hajj Rakhal cut up firewood throwing branches in the floor in front of him.

He told me many of his neighbours had packed up and left after the rockets were launched.

“I don’t know who is behind these attacks, whoever it is wants to drag us into the war. We are very worried,” he said.

“If these attacks continue Israel will start another conflict,” he says.

For the people of Southern Lebanon, the threat of violence is never far, and the war in Gaza has brought it closer.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Lebanese fear Israel’s next step

Mr. Olmert, who said all Israeli objectives for the war had been reached, said Israel was responding positively to a call by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt earlier in the day for an immediate cease-fire, in a clearly orchestrated move by two countries that both see the Hamas movement in Gaza as a threat. Meanwhile, Hamas leaders outside Gaza have insisted that the group will fight on, regardless of any Israeli declaration.

The announcement came on a day in which Israel was again criticized by the United Nations over civilian deaths in Gaza — this time after a tank fired at a United Nations school, killing two young brothers taking shelter there.

United Nations aid officials raised questions about whether the attack, and others like it, should be investigated as war crimes. The Israeli Army said that it was investigating the reports at the highest level but that initial inquiries indicated that troops were returning fire from near or within the school.

The Israeli cease-fire, which becomes effective at 2 a.m. Sunday, could mean an effective end to a three-week-old war that has killed at least 1,200 Palestinians, with more buried under rubble, and 13 Israelis. But even then, the shape of any lasting peace was far from clear.

Israel has signaled that its troops will stay in Gaza until a formal truce is signed that meets Israeli goals of stopping rocket fire from Gaza and sharply hindering the smuggling of arms, weapons, cash and fighters into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt. But the government says it will not sign any deal with Hamas, which is committed to Israel’s destruction and whose rule over Gaza Israel does not want to recognize.

Also, Israeli officials said that they reserved the right to attack again in the future if Hamas kept firing rockets into Israel. Hamas, battered but hardly broken, is expected to reassert its political control over Gaza and to resist any attempt to restore a presence for Fatah, the rival faction that runs the Palestinian Authority, within Gaza.

The announcement of the unilateral cease-fire came on the 22nd day of the war, after repeated calls by the United Nations Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for an immediate halt to the fighting and the deaths of civilians.

The military said that it struck hundreds of targets overnight, including rocket-launching sites, weapons caches and 70 smuggling tunnels, and that its troops tightened the encirclement of Gaza City.

Though exiled Hamas figures vowed to keep fighting, it was unclear how the cease-fire will be received by leaders within Gaza. The group’s representatives were scheduled to meet Egyptian officials in Cairo who are trying to pull together a sustainable truce of at least a year that will end rocket fire into Israel, hinder Hamas resupply and reopen all the crossings into encircled Gaza from both Israel and Egypt.

Particularly concerned about limiting smuggling, the United States and Israel signed a “memorandum of understanding” on Friday in Washington that calls for expanded cooperation to prevent Hamas from rearming through Egypt. The agreement, which is vague, promises increased American technical assistance and international monitors, presumably to be based in Egypt, to crack down on the smuggling.

As important, the United States agreed to work with NATO partners to interdict arms smuggling into Gaza by land and sea from Syria and Iran, and in a letter, Britain, France and Germany also offered to help interdict the smuggling of arms to Hamas.

On Saturday, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France announced a summit meeting about Gaza for Sunday, of which Mr. Mubarak would be co-chairman. Mr. Sarkozy announced that Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain would attend; Mr. Brown said later he was “considering” attending. Egypt has invited Italy, Spain, Turkey, Mr. Ban and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, whose Fatah party governs the West Bank. The meeting, to take place in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik, is about bringing a halt to the fighting in a sustainable way and reconstruction aid for Gaza.

While Mr. Sarkozy initiated the process with Mr. Mubarak in the waning days of the Bush administration, it has been in the end a deal shaped by Egypt and Israel.

Mr. Mubarak’s foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said that his country would not be bound by the memorandum of understanding agreed to by the United States and Israel and would not accept foreign troops on its soil. But officials of both Israel and the United States say Egypt has been showing a new seriousness about stopping the smuggling.

The Arab and Muslim world again appeared to be split into two camps. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been openly critical of Hamas, pressing it to agree to a cease-fire. Qatar, meanwhile, which is close to Iran, held a meeting with Syria, Iran, Mauritania and Hamas’s exiled political leader, Khaled Meshal, as the Palestinian representative. Mr. Abbas, who is supported by the United States and Egypt, had refused to go to Qatar.

In Beit Lahiya, some 1,600 displaced Gazans have taken shelter at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or Unrwa, which cares for Palestinian refugees from the 1948-49 war and their descendants.

John Ging, the Gaza director of the agency, said that two brothers, ages 5 and 7, were killed about 7 a.m. by Israeli fire at the school. Their mother, who was among 14 others wounded, had her legs blown off.

“These two little boys are as innocent, indisputably, as they are dead,” Mr. Ging said. “The question now being asked is: is this and the killing of all other innocent civilians in Gaza a war crime?”

Christopher Gunness, the refugee agency’s spokesman, said: “Where you have a direct hit on an Unrwa school where about 1,600 people had taken refuge, where the Israeli Army knows the coordinates and knows who’s there, where this comes as the latest in a catalogue of direct and indirect attacks on Unrwa facilities, there have to be investigations to establish whether war crimes have been committed,” as well, he added “as violations of international humanitarian law.”

The strike was the fourth time Israel has hit an Unrwa school during the war on Hamas. On Jan. 6, Mr. Ging said, 43 people died when an Israeli shell hit the compound of a school in Jabaliya. Israel has disputed the death toll and said it was returning mortar fire from the school compound.

Four Israeli soldiers, two of them officers, were seriously hurt by mortar fire in fighting on Saturday morning, the army said, suggesting that they were victims of friendly fire. And it said that Hamas had fired 12 rockets at Israel on Saturday, a sharp reduction from daily totals since the start of the war.

While the details are debated and the dead are counted, a critical long-term issue is whether the Gaza operation restores Israel’s deterrent. Israel wants Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the Arab world to view it as a nation too strong and powerful to seriously threaten or attack. That motivation is one reason, Israeli officials say privately, for going into Gaza so hard, using such firepower, and fighting Hamas as an enemy army.

The answer won’t be known for many months, but the key to the Muslim world’s reaction is actually that of the Israeli public, said Yossi Klein Halevi, of the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies in Jerusalem. “The Arabs take their cue from Israeli responses,” he said. “Deterrence is about how Israelis feel, whether they feel they’ve won or lost.”

Mr. Halevi cited both the 1973 war — which Egyptians celebrate and Israelis mourn, though it ended with a spectacular Israel counterattack — and the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, apologized for the 2006 war on television, “but he quickly reversed himself to declare a wonderful victory when he saw the Israeli public declaring defeat,” Mr. Halevi said.

Even more important, perhaps, this Gazan war is a test case for any potential Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank. If Israelis feel that the West Bank will turn into another kind of chaotic, Hamas-run Gaza, they will be unwilling to withdraw — especially if they believe that once they withdrew, and if they were attacked from the West Bank, they would not be allowed to respond with force.

“Gaza is an important test of whether we can defend ourselves within the 1967 boundaries,” Mr. Halevi said, noting that Hamas had been attacking Israel proper, not settlements. “Will we be able to defend ourselves if we need to from the West Bank? Will the international community let us?”

The Israeli public has stayed united behind the war as a necessary battle, despite serious misgivings about the death toll of Palestinian civilians and international condemnation. Even Meretz, a party on the left of Israeli politics, supported the air war.

Hamas has modeled itself on Hezbollah, calling on Iranian support. Mr. Nasrallah once spoke of Israeli power as a spider web — impressive from afar, but easily brushed aside. This war against Hamas, Mr. Halevi said, “is the revenge of the spider.”

Israel Declares Cease Fire; Hamas Says It Will Fight On – NYTimes.com

Its fighters launched dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortars at Israel and seized two more soldiers and killed eight others in cross-border raids.

It was seen as a dramatic gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians, but Israel’s response was far more dramatic and devastating to Lebanon.

Hezbollah said it wanted to exchange the two soldiers for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli detention.

What it got was a 34-day onslaught from the Israeli military, costing more than 1,000 lives, mostly Lebanese civilians.

About 160 Israelis were killed, mostly soldiers, in fighting and rocket fire from Hezbollah. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced on either side.

Events in Lebanon during the summer of 2006 ended up completely overshadowing what had been going on in Gaza.

Intense speculation

We are now nearly two weeks into Israel’s campaign to hit the Hamas militant movement in Gaza, an attempt to reduce rocket fire by Palestinian militants.

The news of rockets being fired from Lebanon will have raised alarm of a possible serious escalation in this bloody New Year period.

Intense speculation has focused on whether or not Hezbollah was responsible for Thursday’s rocket fire or whether it was Palestinian militant groups in exile in refugee camps in Lebanon.

Most analysts have concluded it is unlikely to be Hezbollah – despite recent fiery rhetoric from the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah about the possibility of renewed conflict with Israel.

For a start, there has been no Hezbollah claim of responsibility, which is not the group’s usual style.

It has a reputation, even among Israelis, for being the most credible conveyor of information about its activities – when it chooses to convey such information.

Political timing

There is also the question of the scale of the attack – so far it is much smaller than in July 2006, and it is widely thought that Hezbollah would be capable of a much heavier blow if it had wanted.

The rockets seem to be short-range, and probably were fired from south of the Litani river, which is under control of the Unifil peacekeeping force and the Lebanese regular army.

It has been like this since the 2006 ceasefire which determined an end to all armed activity by militants between the Litani and the Israeli border.

It is widely assumed that Hezbollah still operates under cover in this area, but it is doubtful at this time that they would attempt such a blatant challenge to UN authority.

This is because the group is now part of the Lebanese government – with a power of veto on legislation – so it would be unlikely to want to jeopardise that position.

Another question regarding such attacks is whether Hezbollah somehow assisted, as they are launched from an area where – by reputation – not a leaf can move without its people knowing about it.

If so, the latest attack may be a way for Hezbollah to show solidarity with Gaza without provoking a massive Israeli retaliation.

After all, last year Israeli officials threatened that any attack from Hezbollah would trigger that would a retaliation against all of Lebanon that would make 2006 seem mild.

Difficult terrain

So who would attack Israel like this? Lebanon plays host to 400,000 Palestinian refugees, a reservoir of anger and militancy fuelled by 60 years of exile from what they consider as their land.

There are large refugee camps around Tyre and Sidon in southern Lebanon and militant groups have been known to launch rockets at Israel.

The last occasion of rocket fire was in January 2008, which was linked to the visit of US President George W Bush to Israel.

Hezbollah denied responsibility for that attack and the Israeli military blamed an unnamed Palestinian organisation.

But the incident showed the Unifil/Lebanese army regime was not in total control south of the Litani – notoriously difficult terrain to secure completely, as the Israeli army found to its cost during its long occupation of the area.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Who is behind the Lebanon rockets?

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was born the ninth of ten children in East Beirut’s Bourj Hammoud neighborhood on August 31, 1960. His father, Abdul Karim, was born in Bazouriyeh, a village in Jabal Amel (South Lebanon) located near Tyre. Although his family was not particularly religious, Sayyed Hassan was interested in theological studies. He attended an-Najah school and later a public school in Sin el-Fil, Beirut.

In 1975, the civil war in Lebanon forced the family to move to their ancestral home in Bassouriyeh, where Hasan Nasrallah completed his secondary education at the public school of Sour (Tyre). Here he joined the Amal Movement, a Lebanese Shi’a political group.

Sayyed Nasrallah studied at the Shi’a seminary in the Beqaa Valley town of Baalbek. The school followed the teachings of Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, who founded the Dawa movement in Najaf, Iraq during the early 1960s. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had Sadr executed in 1980. After a period of Islamic study in Najaf, Nasrallah returned to Lebanon in 1978 when Iraq expelled hundreds of Lebanese religious students. He studied and taught at the school of Amal’s leader Abbas al-Musawi, later being selected as Amal’s political delegate in Beqaa, and making him a member of the central political office.

Sayyed Nasrallah joined Hezbollah after the Israeli invasion in 1982. His fiery sermons drew the admiration of Shiite followers who joined Sayyed Nasrallah in organizing Hezbollah. In 1987, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah traveled to a seminary in Qom, Iran for religious studies. He returned to the war in Lebanon in 1989 and later that year, went back to Iran to represent Hezbollah.

In 1991, Musawi became secretary general of Hezbollah and Sayyed Nasrallah returned to Lebanon. Nasrallah replaced Musawi as Hezbollah’s leader after the latter was killed with his wife and child by Israeli forces. Nasrallah lived in South Beirut with his wife Fatimah Yasin (who comes from the Lebanese village of Al-Abbasiyah) and five children: Muhammad Haadi (d. 1997), Muhammad Jawaad, Zainab, Muhammad Ali and Muhammad Mahdi. In September 1997, his eldest son Muhammad Haadi was killed by Israeli forces in Jabal al-Rafei in southern Lebanon.

In the mid-1970s, Nasrallah moved to a Shiite Hawzah (Arabic for seminary) in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, completing the first stage of his studies in 1978. He was then forced to leave by the Iraqi authorities.

Despite his ongoing commitment to Hezbollah, in 1989 Nasrallah resumed his efforts to become a religious jurist by moving to the Iranian city of Qom to further his studies. Nasrallah believes that Islam holds the solution to the problems of any society, once saying, “With respect to us, briefly, Islam is not a simple religion including only praises and prayers, rather it is a divine message that was designed for humanity, and it can answer any question man might ask concerning his general and private life. Islam is a religion designed for a society that can revolt and build a state.”

Leadership of Hezbollah

Nasrallah became the leader of Hezbollah after Israel assassinated the movement’s leader Abbas al-Musawi in 1992. Hezbollah’s military campaigns of the late 1990s were the main factors that led to the Israeli decision to withdraw from Southern Lebanon in 2000, thus ending 18 years of occupation. This move greatly increased Hezbollah’s popularity in Lebanon and across the Islamic countries.

Consequently, Nasrallah is widely credited in Lebanon and the Arab world for ending the Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon, something which has greatly bolstered the party’s political standing within Lebanon.

Nasrallah also played a major role in a complex prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah in 2004, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners being freed and the dead body of his son with many more returning to Lebanon. The agreement was described across the Arab world as a great victory for Hezbollah with Nasrallah being personally praised for achieving these gains.

A December article in the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported that command of the organization’s military wing was transferred from Nasrallah to his deputy, Na’im Qasim in August 2007. Hezbollah has refuted this claim, declaring it an attempt “weaken the popularity” of the movement.

In a televised address at a religious gathering marking the Shiite Day of Ashura south of Beirut, Nasrallah said “I have asked the brothers in the resistance in the south specifically to be present, on alert and cautious because we are facing a criminal enemy and we don’t know the magnitude of the conspiracies.”

“What is happening today is a Palestinian copy of the July war,” Nasrallah said, drawing a comparison between the Israel Defense Forces offensive in the Gaza Strip and the 2006 Second Lebanon War, which Hezbollah waged against Israel in southern Lebanon.

“This is exactly what happened with us. The possibilities and the same possibilities, the conspiracy is the same, the battle is the same battle, and the result, Allah willing, will be the same result,” the Hezbollah leader told the crowd.

Speaking about IDF preparations in northern Israel, at the border with Lebanon, Nasrallah said that he does not rule out the possibility that Israel fears a Hezbollah assault, “but there is another possibility,” he said, “that at this terrible timing, in the shadow of the Arab conspirators and the American political vacuum, between Bush and Obama, there is the possibility that the enemy will take advantage of the situation and attack Lebanon. They need it because of the elections, or to improve their power of deterrence. We need to be careful and not take what is happening lightly.”

The Hezbollah leader also mentioned the missiles recently discovered by the Lebanese army, which it said were aimed at Israel and had timers set for launch, saying that Israel, or someone working on Israel’s behalf, planted them. “Who put them there before a war?” he asked.

“When they found them, they said ‘people in Lebanon.’ We in the Hezbollah have the courage to take responsibility for every action and we won’t hide, like some others. Would it have been difficult for Israel to infiltrate southern Lebanon and put them there? The many Israeli agents, lone and institutional, could do this to give themselves an excuse to attack Lebanon.”

In his televised address, Nasrallah criticized some Arab countries whom he accused of colluding with Israel and America, saying “I’ll call things by their name. We need the word of truth and we need every nation to shoulder its responsibility in the face of what is happening.”

“After Egypt and Jordan signed so-called ‘peace agreements’ all that remains is the Palestinian people, Lebanon and Syria,” Nasrallah went on to say. “The Americans and the Zionists want to reach an agreement to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict on American and Israeli terms. They want the Arabs to capitulate to these terms without any conditions. They want to force these terms on the Arabs, with pressure, isolation, siege, civil war, media warfare, psychological warfare, assassinations and wars.”

“There are those who speak of the Arab silence. This is not true. There is an Arab partnership. But not all the Arabs and not all the regimes ? there are those who cooperate with the enemy. Especially those who signed deals known as peace agreements with Israel. They help the American-Zionist project coerce its terms of submission on all the other resistance fighters, in every way – political, psychological and military,” the Hezbollah leader continued.

“Just so we are very clear,” Nasrallah declared. “The war against us was waged with Arab consent, and sometimes at the demand of Arabs. We are facing a conspiracy on their part regarding everything that is happening in the region.”

Hezbollah: Israel may take this opportunity to attack Lebanon – Haaretz – Israel News

Lebanese cities and villages witnessed massive protests on Sunday in solidarity with the residents of the besieged Gaza Strip and in protest to the ongoing Israeli attacks and invasions into the impoverished region, International Middle East Media Center reported.

The protests were organized by Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah. Earlier the Hezbollah leader urged the Arab world to be united against Israel to defend Gaza residents who are suffering harsh conditions due to the Israeli blockade.

Waving Palestinian, Lebanese and Hezbollah flags, the protesters chanted anti-Israel slogans and demanded an end to the Israeli siege and aggression on Gaza.

The crowd, in their slogans, slammed the United States for its support to the Israeli occupation and crimes.

In a similar move on Friday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Beirut for a mass protest held by Hezbollah against Israel’s crippling blockade of Gaza.

Hassan Nasrallah called on people across the Muslim and Arab world to hold demonstrations demanding the blockade be lifted.

Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip was tightened even further last month in spite of an Egyptian-brokered truce deal between the Hamas movement and Israel.

The six-month ceasefire expired on Friday and Hamas dismissed to extend the truce, holding Israel responsible for violating the terms of the truce including failing to ease Gaza blockade.

Press TV

Ali Jarrah, 50, a Lebanese citizen, and his brother Youssef, from Marj in the Bekaa valley, were arrested last week by the Lebanese army, which charged them with espionage. A third suspect has also been held, sources close to the investigation said. All three face the death penalty.

The spy ring has been linked to the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, a leading figure in Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite militia, who was killed in a bomb blast in Damascus in February. Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, blamed Israel for the attack and vowed to take revenge.

Mughniyeh has long been a target for Israel and America. He was responsible for bombing the US marine barracks and embassy in Beirut in 1983, in which more than 350 died, and was behind an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, which killed 29.

One source suggested the brothers may have been “spotters”, part of an observation team that monitored Mughniyeh’s movements shortly before his death. Others said there was no direct evidence of this. According to the Lebanese army, Jarrah and his brother were found to possess “communication devices and other sophisticated equipment”.

Lebanese investigators impounded a Mitsubishi Pajero 4×4 parked in front of Jarrah’s home. The vehicle was said to be fitted with advanced surveillance equipment.

“Some equipment was found in his house; other items were hidden in a vehicle,” said a security official who claimed the men had also been monitoring the movement of officials crossing the Syrian-Lebanese border.

According to Lebanese sources, the Jarrah brothers were recruited by Israel during the 1980s, when the Israeli army controlled large swathes of southern Lebanon.

Ali Jarrah is said to have joined militant Palestinian groups, which enabled him to travel between Lebanon and Syria and move around Damascus without attracting suspicion.

Sources close to the investigation said Jarrah had confessed to having been recruited by the Israelis to gather intelligence on militant Palestinian organisations in Lebanon.

Only in recent years had he started to monitor senior figures in Hezbollah, it was claimed. A statement issued by the Lebanese army said the two men had admitted to “gathering information on political party offices and monitoring the movements of party figures for the enemy”.

The Beirut paper As-Safir reported that during the war with Israel in southern Lebanon in 2006, Jarrah was seen with a video camera at relief centres connected to Hezbollah. “Was he pinpointing security targets in the Bekaa?” it asked.

According to the paper, investigators are attempting to determine whether a video camera fixed inside Jarrah’s car was directly connected by a satellite link to controllers in Israel.

Since the death of Mughniyeh, who was killed instantly when a booby-trapped headrest in his 4×4 exploded, Hezbollah has been determined to track down his assassins.

The brothers had apparently been frequent visitors to the Kfar Sousa district of Damascus where Mughniyeh, who had an American bounty of $5m (£3.2m) on his head, was finally identified.

According to some reports, Jarrah was first picked up in the southern suburbs of Beirut by Hezbollah security men on July 7, after being suspected of having had a role in Mughniyeh’s assassination.

Hezbollah is said to have finally handed Jarrah to the Lebanese authorities after questioning him for nearly four months.

According to Lebanese security sources, the brothers are distantly related to Ziad Jarrah, one of the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001, killing everyone on board. Their families come from the same town in the Bekaa valley.

The Israeli government has refused to comment on the arrests.

Times Online

The meeting on Sunday was the first between the two leaders since Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon and comes five months after Qatar mediated an end to an 18-month political conflict in Lebanon which had escalated into street battles.

“There was an affirmation of national unity and civil peace and the need to take all measures to prevent tension … and to reinforce dialogue and to avoid strife regardless of political differences,” the statement issued by both sides said.

The rare meeting between Nasrallah and al-Hariri marks a thaw in relations between the two opponents before parliamentary elections scheduled for 2009.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television aired footage of the meeting, which was also attended by aides to both leaders.

The joint statement also said that Nasrallah and al-Hariri would be in “mutual contact”.

Political differences

The differences between Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim political organisation which runs an armed wing, and member parties of the March 14 parliamentary majority flared into armed conflict in May.

Fighters from Hezbollah and its allies briefly took control of predominantly Muslim west Beirut, prompting an armed response by supporters of the March 14 bloc, including those allied to al-Hariri’s Future Movement.

The joint statement released on Monday said that the meeting was “honest and open” and said that the leaders would take “steps to calm the situation in the media and in the street”.

The talks between al-Hariri and Nasrallah are being seen in Lebanon as the most significant of a series of meetings between politicians from March 14 and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Nasrallah and al-Hariri are also committed to implementing the Qatar-mediated deal which in May had called for “national dialogue” talks, Monday’s joint statement said.

The next session is scheduled for November 5.

Weapons issue

The parliamentary majority is calling for Hezbollah to disarm, in favour of building a stronger Lebanese national army.

However, Hezbollah insists that its weapons are essential to a Lebanese national resistance against Israel, its southern neighbour.

Israel failed to destroy Hezbollah during a 34-day war in 2006, which was sparked by a Hezbollah cross-border raid.

Demands for the disarmament of Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, have become increasingly shrill since the 2005 assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister and Saad’s father.

Hezbollah is the most powerful faction in Lebanon and its opposition bloc holds veto power over decisions taken in Lebanon’s cabinet.

While Hezbollah is not willing to disarm, its leaders have said that the organisation is willing to discuss a defence strategy that would define the role of its fighters.

Al Jazeera English – Middle East – Nasrallah and al-Hariri enter talks