Nasrallah: UNIFIL cannot, will not disarm Hezbollah

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised interview aired Tuesday on Al-Manar TV that the United Nations Forces in Lebanon would not be able to disarm the guerilla group.

"The assembly of UNIFIL forces does not hint to anything that should inspire fear. This is not an ensemble with a goal of disarming us, nor would they be able to do so," he said, in his first appearance since speaking at "victory" rally in south Beirut last month.

Nasrallah said the countries that had sent forces to Lebanon had established contact with the Hezbollah before deciding to deploy their troops. "We told them that we have no problem with them coming to help the [Lebanese] army," he said.

The Hezbollah leader also said that Israel had been defeated in the recent war, and would have to "think a thousand times" before starting another war in Lebanon. He said the guerilla group had well prepared itself over the last six years for a war of seige with Israel. "We had more than 33,000 missiles," he said, adding, "and what we had is still in our possession.

Nasrallah also said that the U.S. has failed in Iraq and that animosity in the Arab world against Washington should not be blamed on Islamic extremism.

"Afghanistan is a failure ... In Iraq, there is clear failure on the security, military and political levels ... Who shoulders responsibility? It's the American administration and the occupation forces in control of the situation," Nasrallah said in a taped interview on Hezbollah's television station Al-Manar.

He said America's plans in the Middle East face "failure, frustration and a state of collapse," and predicted the U.S. would be forced to leave the region in the future - just like it left Vietnam after the war there three decades ago.

The U.S. has "no future" in the region, Nasrallah said. "They will leave the Mideast, Arab and Islamic worlds just as they left Vietnam, and I advise those who are counting on them to draw conclusion from the Vietnam experience."

This would happen "within years, not months," he added.