BEIRUT– Reuters
A Lebanese minister close to Hizbollah has urged the United States to take the group off its “terror list” and seek a way to start a dialogue with its leaders. “I call on the U.S. to change its stance toward Hizbollah and I support direct dialogue between the two sides to that effect,” Labour Minister Trad Hamadeh told Reuters in an interview on Friday night.
Hamadeh, who held talks with U.S. officials in Washington earlier this year, was described this month by a U.S. diplomatic source as a “channel of communication” between the U.S. and the Shi’ite Muslim group. “Describing me as a channel of communication is deceptive … I am a minister of Lebanon, not a messenger,” Hamadeh said. “The talks I had were part of dialogue aimed at safeguarding the interests of my country.”
He said direct communication between Hizbollah and Washington would be more productive than contact through intermediaries. “The diplomacy of shutting doors and entering through windows is not a dynamic one. It lacks the capacity, efficiency and the competence needed to produce results,” Hamadeh said. Hamadeh, who has no official rank within pro-Syria Hizbollah, kept his post in a new government line-up announced on Tuesday, three months after Damascus withdrew its forces from Lebanon after nearly 30 years.
Hizbollah was represented in the cabinet for the first time after the party won 14 seats in parliament in last month’s elections. Hamadeh said his meetings with U.S. officials including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Elizabeth Dibble, took place with Hizbollah’s blessing. “I met with Dibble but not before discussing it with the parliamentary bloc that supported and named me (to the government),” he said.
DISARMAMENT
Hizbollah, accused by the U.S. of receiving financial and weapons support from Damascus and Tehran, played a key role in ending Israel‘s 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon and its guerrillas still clash sporadically with Israeli forces.
Calls for its disarmament in line with a U.N. resolution which also demanded Syria‘s withdrawal intensified after the killing of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri in February. Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has said the group would not lay down its arms as long as “Israel threatened Lebanon” but agreed to discuss the fate of its weapons with various Lebanese factions.
“Hizbollah is committed to the results of any national dialogue that takes place, providing it is free of interference from Arab countries, Europe or America,” Hamadeh said. Hizbollah, whose support runs deep in Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim community, has had representatives in parliament since 1992 and runs a wide network of social and charity services. The group’s strong showing in the elections has proven a dilemma for the U.S., which touts June’s polls as a victory in its drive for democracy in the region.
Washington has held out the prospect of legitimacy for the group if it abandons arms and transforms into a political party. “Hizbollah has its own constituency, institutions, representatives in parliament and ministers in the government. The argument of turning into a political party does not stand. It already is,” Hamadeh said. U.S. policy toward Hizbollah is not likely to change anytime soon.
“The United States has a longstanding policy toward Hizbollah that has a history to it, that has a history of blood to it and that has not changed,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a visit to Beirut on Friday.
By Ayat Basma
Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
