Hezbollah Seeks More Power in Lebanon

A Lebanese soldier guards the perimeter a rally in support of the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora in the eastern Lebanese Bekaa village of Taalabaya on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. Thousands of Hezbollah-led protesters having been staging an open-ended sit-in in downtown Beirut since Dec. 1 to force the U.S.-backed government to resign. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) (Petros Giannakouris - AP)

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hezbollah is pushing for more power in a new Lebanese Cabinet partly to avoid being disarmed by any future government, a senior official in the guerrilla group said Friday.

The remarks by Mahmoud Komati, deputy head of Hezbollah's political bureau, were the first time the Shiite Muslim group has publicly acknowledged a direct link between weapons possession and its drive for more power.

Hezbollah's disarmament is a top demand of the United States and Israel. The U.N. cease-fire resolution that ended the Hezbollah-Israel war in August also calls for the group's eventual disarmament.

The Shiite group, backed by Syria and its allies in the Lebanese government, insists it will lay down its arms only when Lebanon has a strong enough government and army to defend its borders with Israel.

Hezbollah and its allies have staged massive protests in recent weeks to demand more than one-third the seats in the Cabinet, enough to give them veto power over key decisions.

U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his anti-Syrian supporters have rejected Hezbollah's demands, calling the campaign a Syria-backed coup.

Komati said Hezbollah started asking for greater share in the government only after the July-August war with Israel and that one of the key reasons was to prevent the pro-U.S. government from forcing it to disarm.

"Now we are demanding it (greater government share), because our experience during the war and the performance of the government has made us unsure. On several occasions they pressured us to lay down our weapons while we were fighting a war," Komati told The Associated Press in a huge tent, one of hundreds Hezbollah has erected for sit-ins just outside Saniora's office.

"So after the war, we had no choice but to demand this guarantee that would give us legal and constitutional strength. If we take the one-third plus one, the government will not be able to impose its decision on us," said Komati.

Holding just over a third of the seats would allow Hezbollah and its allies to bring down the Cabinet if it intended to pass a decision they oppose.

In the past week, Arab League mediators managed to get the two sides to agree on the outlines of a national unity Cabinet, but the rival factions failed to bridge other differences that threaten to scuttle the deal.

Among the points the two sides agreed on, said Komati, was the formation of a unity government made up of 19 pro-Saniora ministers, 10 opposition ministers and a neutral 11th minister. The opposition has proposed that it choose the 11th minister but give the government the freedom to approve the nomination. Komati said the government still has not agreed to this proposal.