Hezbollah does not want control of Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 27 (UPI) -- The leader of Hezbollah said the militant group has no plans to take over Lebanon now that a new president has been installed.

"We don't want authority in Lebanon," said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech Monday. "We don't want to control Lebanon. We don't want to impose our ideas on the Lebanese people."

The comments are the first from Hezbollah following an agreement reached last week in Qatar among rival political factions, The New York Times said Tuesday. The agreement gives Hezbollah veto power in the Lebanese Parliament, but leaves the status of its weapons unresolved.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Sunday Lebanon could take a lessons-learned approach from "the resistance" in developing its defense policy. Taking the cue, Nasrallah told supporters Monday Hezbollah is the guardian of the "defense strategy" of Lebanon.

"Essentially, he was saying we're willing to go back to being Mr. Nice Guy, but we're not going to accept anybody crossing us," said Hezbollah expert Judith Harik in Beirut. "All the political and military options have been used to try to disarm Hezbollah, and basically they've failed."