Remove Hezbollah from terror list: Beirut to US
BEIRUT: Lebanon called on Washington
Saturday to remove Hezbollah from its terrorist
list, arguing that the radical Muslim group was
resisting Israel's occupation of Lebanese land and
never harmed US interests.
Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares also criticized
US White House spokesman Ari Fleischer for saying
on Friday that Lebanon's "neutrality is not an
acceptable position."
Fleischer said "you can't, on the one hand, condemn
the al-Qaeda and hug the Hezbollah or hug the
Hamas."
Al-Qaeda is the network of Osama bin Laden and
the prime suspect in the September 11 terror attacks
on the United States. Hamas is a radical Palestinian
group that regularly carries out attacks on Israeli
targets.
Fares, a long-time friend of US George W. Bush and
his father, as well as of Secretary of State Colin
Powell, said "the Lebanese official position toward
Hezbollah, which has popular backing, cannot be
doubted and cannot be called 'neutral' or 'unacceptable.'
"Liberating the land cannot be considered a neutral
position," he said.
"It is a mistake to make a comparison between the
al-Qaeda network ... which Lebanon has
condemned, and Hezbollah, which Lebanon
considers a resistance party fighting the Israeli
occupation.
"This is a mistake that cannot be accepted, because
Hezbollah was behind the liberation of the parts of
southern Lebanon that Israel had occupied for 22
years, during which (Israel) refused to implement UN
Security Council Resolution 425."
That resolution called for Israel to withdraw from
Lebanese territory occupied following its invasion of
the country in 1978.
"Hezbollah did not carry out any resistance operation
against American interests in Lebanon or abroad
and did not target civilians in its resistance activities
as happened on September 11 at the World Trade
Center," he said.
Fares reminded Bush that "this issue is very delicate
and sensitive in Lebanon."
However, he asserted "Lebanon's readiness to
counter terrorism, whether at the information level or
concerning the freezing of financial assets of terrorist
organisations if they are found in Lebanese banks.
"The concerned ministries in Lebanon are currently
preparing answers to the questions (about terrorist
suspects) received a few weeks ago by the foreign
ministry from the United Nations Security Council
committee," he said.
Beirut officially rejected this week a US request to
freeze the assets of Hezbollah, which continues to
carry out armed operations against the disputed
Shebaa Farms area, captured by Israel from Syria in
1967 and now claimed by Lebanon.
Hezbollah and a number of Palestinian organisations
are on a blacklist published by Washington on
November 2, adding to 66 groups and individuals on
two earlier lists whose global assets should be
frozen.
( AFP )
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