BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon's Shiites are committed to Lebanon as their sole country under the Taif Accord and will defend it by all democratic means to move it from a phase of divided powers to a sovereign state.

This was stated by Lebanese speaker Nabih Berri while he was addressing a grand gathered in the Southern city of Tyre to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the disappearance of Ayatullah Musa As-Sadr and two of his companions.

Berri said the Shiites "are committed to Lebanon's unity, its land and the fact that they constitute an indivisible part of its people."

"I shouldn't have to stipulate all these commitments that the Shiites believe in to prove their loyalty to this country. Imam Sadr said in an interview in 1973 that the Shiite as a citizen in any country is committed to [his or her] national duties and loyalty to that country," added Berri, who is the head of the Shiite Amal Movement founded by Sadr in the early 1970s.

"The Shiites are being accused of not supporting Arabism ... and they are being asked time and again to prove their loyalties to their Lebanese identity," he complained.

"We reject accusations that the Shiites are a force outside the state, against Arabism, and unattached to their Lebanese identity. I say that as I look at the state's miserable act of distributing certificates of Arabism to those whom the US deems worthy and loyal," he said.

As for the disappearance of Sadr, Berri once again accused "the head of Libya's regime, Moammar Gadhafi," of being behind this "organized international crime."

He added: "With all due respect to [Lebanese] Premier Fouad Siniora who said Wednesday that Lebanon will continue to follow up on this crime ... we warn against receiving the public bribe, which is Libyan aid to Lebanon and weapons to its army."