Hizbullah: Arabs buckling to US

Nasrallah, Mashaal discuss "ongoing movement to resume negotiations under Israeli conditions."

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
The leader of Lebanon's Hizbullah accused Arab leaders Saturday of caving in to US pressure to bring the Palestinians back to peace talks with Israel.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah made the statement after meeting Friday with the political leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Last week, the Obama administration laid out a bold shift in its Mideast peace strategy, stepping up pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to resume stalled talks by moving immediately to negotiations on the toughest issues dividing them, like the borders of a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last week that dealing with those matters first would eliminate Palestinian concerns about Jewish construction in disputed areas. The Palestinians have refused to return to talks until such building stops.
A Hizbullah statement said Nasrallah and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal discussed "the ongoing political movement to resume negotiations under Israeli conditions." It added that this shows "the level of retreat and weakness in the official Arab position facing Israeli dangers and American pressure."
US President Barack Obama's special envoy, George Mitchell, is expected in the region this week to press for a resumption of peace talks.
In other Hizbullah-related news, a senior US official revealed on Sunday that Syria has allowed Hizbullah guerrillas to train on its soil in the operation of advanced SA-2 anti-aircraft.
Speaking to the Kuwaiti A-Rai newspaper, the official warned that if Syria were to supply Lebanon with such missiles, Israel would bomb targets in Damascus since it would be deemed a crossing of red lines.
Jpost.com Staff contributed to this report