Top American official: Hezbollah the 'A-team of terrorists'
Last update - 09:21 06/09/2002
A top U.S. diplomat took aim at Hezbollah on Thursday, saying the United States would go after the group he called "the A-team of terrorists."
"Hezbollah made the A-team of terrorists, maybe al-Qaida is actually the B-team," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in answer to a questions after a luncheon speech.
"We're going to go after them just like a high school wrestler goes after opponents, we're going to take them down one at a time," Armitage said.
Like al-Qaida, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States, Hezbollah is on the State Department's 2001 list of "designated foreign terrorist organizations."
Hezbollah is "known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-U.S. terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombings of the U.S. embassy in Beirut in April 1983 and the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983," according to the State Department.
Three Hezbollah members are on the FBI's list of 22 most wanted "terrorists" for the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, during which a U.S. Navy diver was murdered, the State Department said in its 2001 report "Patterns of Global Terrorism."
Hezbollah operates in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, and has established cells in Europe, Africa, South America, North America and Asia, the report said.
Hezbollah recently resumed firing at Israeli targets on the northern border, following a four-month lull. An IDF soldier died Saturday of wounds sustained the day before when the group's guerillas fired about 80 anti-tank missiles at two IDF outposts in Har Dov.
Syria: Israel behind proposed U.S. law against Hezbollah
Earlier Thursday, Syria's official press lashed out at a proposed U.S. law that would punish Damascus for supporting Hezbollah and radical Palestinian groups, calling the idea the work of Israeli pawns in Congress.
The remarks reflect rising tension in ties between Washington and Syria, which warns the United States wants to fill the region with puppet states subordinated to Israel and that it could be a U.S. military target along with Iraq.
A draft law called the Syria Acountability Act before Congress threatens sanctions against Syria for backing Hezbollah and the Palestinian groups, which Washington deems "terrorist" but Syria defends as legitimate resistance to Israel.
"Extremist Congressmen known for their clear Zionist
inclinations have proposed this law in full coordination with the racist government of (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon," the Tishreen daily said in a commentary.
Washington has thanked Syria for cooperating against the al-Qaeda network blamed for the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities that sparked the anti-terror war, but warns Syria its backing for militant groups contradicts that effort.
The paper said Lebanese Christians who sided with Israel during Lebanon's civil war and want Syria out of Lebanon were also behind the bill, which demands Syria end "occupation" of Lebanon, where it has 20,000 troops and effective control.
"They are using some weak-willed individuals who conspire against Lebanon and its Arab identity, and collaborators with the Zionist entity for this purpose," it said, referring to pressure on the issue of "terrorism".
"Syria fought terrorism alone and with skill, and cooperated with the United States believing that terrorism threatens the region and the world, but sees the difference between terrorism and legitimate national resistance to occupation," it said.
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