Nasrallah rules out Israeli peace

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Hezbollah will never reach peace with Israel or recognize its right to exist, said Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.

Nasrallah in a speech intended for the Palestinian people said the territories do not belong to "the Zionist entity (Israel)," stressing the Arab and Islamic communities should stand together in the face of the "Israeli enemy," Hezbollah's al-Manar news agency reports.

He went on to say that Hezbollah would never make peace with Israel, nor recognize its right to exist.

"We will never make peace with it even if the international community demands it," he said. "We will not recognize Israel, neither succumb to it, and we will not normalize or make peace with this malignant cell that should be terminated, even if the whole world recognizes its existence."

His comments come on the heels of a religious edict from Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a leading Hezbollah-backed cleric, declaring normalization of ties with Israel runs counter to Islamic law.

"The normalization of ties with the Zionist enemy in any form is prohibited by Shariah (Islamic law)," the cleric said.

Washington called on Arab states to improve their relationship with Israel, while urging the Israeli government to halt its settlement activity in the West Bank as part of an effort to kick-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.