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Bush: Hizballah Must Be Disarmed

(Yediot Ahronot-Ynet) Paul Holmes and Nadim Ladki - President Bush said in an interview Tuesday with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation that Hizballah had to be disarmed. "You can't have a free country if a group of people are like an armed militia," he said. Bush said Hizballah, which is also backed by Iran, was trying not only to destabilize the Israeli-Palestinian peace process but "to impose their will on a free society." Syria reiterated its backing for Hizballah on Tuesday. (Reuters/ABC News) Bush said: "There is a reason why we've put Hizballah on a terrorist list. They've killed Americans in the past. We will continue to work with the international community to keep them on that list and we will continue to pressure this group." The U.S. president also stepped up pressure on Syria, saying if Damascus wants to improve its relations with the U.S. it must "completely pull out of Lebanon, shut down the offices of Hizballah in Damascus, and stop arms smuggling into Iraq." (Daily Star-Lebanon) Bush called Hizballah "a dangerous organization" and said if Syria refuses to disarm the group, he could work to apply diplomatic pressure and rally the international community against Syria. "Syria has got to do its part about making sure that Hizballah doesn't receive support from Syria," Bush said.
2005-04-20 00:00:00
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