Welcome ceremony for released prisoners, Hezbollah leader speech

Описание: (30 Jan 2004)
1. Aerial view of large crowd at welcome ceremony NO AUDIO
2. Hezbollah band playing music
3. Child waving flags
4. Released Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, in middle of crowd
5. Mid shot of released prisoner being held up above crowd
6. Wide shot of released prisoner, Hassan Anquni, being held up above crowd
7. Mid shot of Sheikh Obeid greeting audience
8. Wide shot released prisoners in line on stage
9. Released prisoner Anwar Yassin greeting audience
10. Side shot of former prisoners on stage
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader:
"I heard that one of the Israeli analysts reassured that they (the Israelis) walk on their four feet (referring to two legs and two hands, they are donkeys and the Hezbollah is riding on their back. I tell them this is true and the proof is because you kept Samir Quntar."
12. Cutaway on crowd and former prisoners
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader:
"The enemy should have set free Samir Kantar (a captured Lebanese citizen) now. Because they didn't do that, I assure you that they will regret it in the future."
14. Cutaway on crowd
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader:
"I pledge you in the name of the militants of the Islamic resistance that next time, they will bring them alive,"
16. Nasrallah greeting and hugging the former prisoners

STORYLINE:

Hezbollah will kidnap more Israelis to secure the release of Lebanese prisoners, if necessary, the militant movement's leader warned on Thursday.

Speaking at a mass rally to welcome 21 Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel hours earlier, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his guerrillas could capture more Israelis to bargain for the freedom of Lebanese still held in Israeli prisons.

Turning to a huge poster of a guerrilla ambush in which three Israeli soldiers were captured in October 2000, Nasrallah said: "This is a choice."

The soldiers' bodies were part of the major exchange of prisoners and remains of fighters that was effected between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday through German mediation.

Shortly before Nasrallah spoke, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned Hezbollah against kidnapping.

Speaking at a memorial service for the three dead soldiers in Israel, Sharon said: "Israel will not allow any enemy or terror group to turn kidnapping and ransom into a system."

Nasrallah said that Hezbollah guerrillas were heavy-handed when they took the three Israeli soldiers dead.

"I pledge to you that, next time, they will bring them alive," he said.

The same month that the soldiers were ambushed, Hezbollah managed to kidnap Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum as he visited an Arab state.

As Tannenbaum was the only Israeli known to be alive in Hezbollah's custody, he became a major chip in the protracted negotiations for Thursday's exchange.

He returned to Israel on the same plane as the soldiers' coffins.

Nasrallah told the rally it was "foolish" for the Israeli government not to have released Samir Kantar, the Lebanese citizen who has been held the longest in Israel.

He said: "Because they didn't do that, I assure you that they will regret it in the future."

Under the complex exchange, Israel freed about 400 Palestinians to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, nearly 30 Lebanese and other Arabs who were flown to Beirut via Germany, and handed over the remains of 60 guerrillas to the International Committee of the Red Cross on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

In return, Hezbollah handed over Tannenbaum and the three soldiers' bodies.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...