Speaking on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV channel on June 18, Hizbullah MP Walid Sukkarieh said: "What would the capturing of settlements [in a future war] mean? First, we would be liberating land. Second, we would take hostages, prisoners. The Israeli people would be held prisoner by you."

Following are excerpts

Hizbullah MP Walid Sukkarieh: Today, the missiles play a role. The missiles can now reach Tel Aviv from Iran, not just from Damascus, Beirut, or Cairo.

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What would the capturing of settlements [in a future war] mean? First, we would be liberating land. Second, we would take hostages, prisoners. The Israeli people would be a prisoner in your hands. This would prevent Israel from targeting civilians on your side. It would not be able to implement the Dahiya Strategy. They have threatened that in the next war, they will implement this strategy and destroy all of Lebanon. What will they destroy if we hold settlements hostage? We will have hostages. If they kill us, we will kill them.

Interviewer: The Israeli plan...

Walid Sukkarieh: Then, when the final solution comes, you will have a number of prisoners, and you will be occupying a land... Or rather, you will have liberated a land, not occupied it. Under these circumstances, no resolution will be able to force you to withdraw to your previous positions, and to hand this land back to Israel. Even the Arab [regimes] would not be able to tolerate this. The worst Arab regimes would not be able to accept this. They would not be able to say: "Hizbullah managed to liberate a settlement in Palestine, but it must withdraw from it." A new situation will be forced upon the conflict between Hizbullah and Israel, or upon the Palestinian cause a s a whole.

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