Hezbollah foreign relations

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Hezbollah

Articles Flag of Hezbollah Ideology History Political activities 2008 conflict in Lebanon 2006–2008 Lebanese political protests Doha Agreement Military activities South Lebanon conflict (1982–2000) Operation Accountability Operation Grapes of Wrath 2000–2006 Shebaa Farms conflict 2006 Lebanon War Military capabilities Imam al-Mahdi Scouts Armed strength Foreign relations Funding of Hezbollah Hezbollah's organizations: Bayt al-Mal Jihad Al Binna IRSO Media: Al-Manar Al-Nour Secretary General: Subhi al-Tufayli Abbas al-Musawi Hassan Nasrallah

Although UN Security Council Resolution 1559, calls for "the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militia".^[1] The Lebanese cabinet, under president Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, guidelines state that Hezbollah enjoys the right to "liberate occupied lands."^[2] Four countries list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization; the United States, Israel, Canada and the Netherlands while two countries list only its security arm as a terrorist organization; the United Kingdom,and Australia.^[3] Many nations in the UN and EU have not described Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.^[4]

Hezbollah has close relations with Iran.^[5] It also has ties with the Alawite leadership in Syria, specifically with President Hafez al-Assad (until his death in 2000) and his son and successor Bashar al-Assad.^[6] Hezbollah has declared its support for the ongoing al-Aqsa intifada.

There is little evidence of Hezbollah contact or cooperation with al-Qaeda.^[7] Hezbollah's leaders denies links to al-Qaeda, present or past.^[7][8] Also some of the al-Qaeda's leaders like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi^[9] and Wahhabists clerics consider Hezbollah to be apostate.^[10][11] But United States intelligence officials speculate there has been contact between Hezbollah and low-level al-Qaeda figures who fled Afghanistan for Lebanon.^[12][13]

Contents 1 Position of the UN 2 Iran 3 Syria 4 Relationships to other Islamic movements 4.1 Hamas 4.2 Alleged Releationship with Al-Qaeda 4.3 al-Mahdi Army 4.4 Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement 5 European Union 6 Attitude of Israel to Hezbollah 7 Releationship with other Countries & Organisations 8 Other groups' attitudes toward Hezbollah 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Position of the UN

UN Security Council Resolution 1559, calls for "the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militia",^[14] echoing the Taif Agreement that ended the Lebanese Civil War, but does not explicitly include Hezbollah^[15][16] although Kofi Annan has advanced this interpretation.^[17][18] The Lebanese Government^[19] and Hezbollah dispute the application of this resolution to Hezbollah, referring to it as a "resistance movement" and not a militia. Israel has lodged complaints about Hezbollah's actions with the UN.^[20] Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem has said that its forces might become a "reservist army" within the Lebanese army, though this suggestion is not universally supported within the organisation.^[21]

The UN's Deputy Secretary-General, Mark Malloch Brown, contests characterisations of the Lebanese militia as a terrorist organisation in the mould of al-Qaeda.^[22] While acknowledging that “Hezbollah employs terrorist tactics,”^[23] he says that it is unhelpful to call it a terrorist organization; the United States and the international community, in his view, would do well to respect it as a legitimate political party. Brown also criticized Hizbullah, "It is making no effort to hit military targets; it's just a broadside against civilian targets."^[24]

On the other end of the spectrum, some "UN actors have even denied that Hizbullah is a terrorist organization."^[25] Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, who has served as permanent observer of the League of Arab States to the UN since 1992, an Egyptian, called Hezbollah "a resistance movement that was fighting foreign occupation, just as there had been during the Second World War."^[25][26]

Iran

In a July 20, 2006 article, scholar Fred Halliday wrote that Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of Hezbollah under Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, told him Hezbollah follows Iran's leadership as a matter of principle:^[27]

"On the matter of political relations with Iran, the sheikh was absolutely clear. Hizbollah regards the Iranian supreme leader, in this case Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as its ultimate authority; all major political decisions regarding Hizbollah are referred to – when not actually taken in – Iran. He gave the example of the decision taken in 1992 to enter Lebanese national politics: Hizbollah set up a commission, which prepared a report, with various options; this report was sent to Iran; it was Ayatollah Khamenei himself who took the final decision, in favour of participation."

Syria

It is widely believed that Hafez al-Assad, who was president of Syria from 1971 to 2000, and Hezbollah were closely linked; this did not significantly affect his relations with the rest of the world. Bashar al-Assad, his son and successor, has been subjected to sanctions by the U.S. due to (among other things, such as occupying Lebanon) his continued support for Hezbollah, which it views as a terrorist organization.

In an interview on Al-Arabiya TV in Dubai, former Hezbollah Secretary-General Subhi Al-Tufeili said^[28] Hezbollah definitely fosters its relations with the Syrians, but Hezbollah's real leadership is 'the rule of the jurisprudence'.

Relationships to other Islamic movements

Hamas

According to CRS report for U.S. Congress:

"Although Hezbollah and Hamas are not organizationally linked, Hezbollah provides military training as well as financial and moral support to the Palestinian group and has acted in some ways as a mentor or role model for Hamas, which has sought to emulate the Lebanese group’s political and media success. Hamas’s kidnapping of the Israeli soldier follows a different Hezbollah example. Moreover, two groups share the goal of driving Israel from occupied territories and ultimately eliminating it; both maintain close ties with Iran."^[29]

According to an Israeli military source, Hezbollah assists Hamas with bomb production: "They know how to make them more concentrated, what kind of screw to use, how to pack more explosives into less space."^[30]

Nasrallah has declared his support for the ongoing al-Aqsa Intifada.^[31]

Alleged Releationship with Al-Qaeda

There is no concrete evidence of Hezbollah contact or cooperation with al-Qaida. United States intelligence officials speculate there has been contact between Hezbollah and low-level al-Qaeda figures who fled Afghanistan for Lebanon.^{[32][33][34][35][36]} One example of evidence of the alliance was in the public testimony "by Ali Mohamed, a former U.S. Green Beret who pleaded guilty to conspiring with bin Laden to bomb U.S. embassies in Africa. ... Hezbollah, he testified, provided explosives training to al Qaeda."^[37] According to Middle East Quarterly and the Washington Post, "Al Qaeda members received advice and training from Hezbollah."^[38][37] In a 2002 article, the Washington Post claimed:

"The new cooperation ... includes coordination on explosives and tactics training, money laundering, weapons smuggling and acquiring forged documents, according to knowledgeable sources. This new alliance, even if informal, has greatly concerned U.S. officials in Washington and intelligence operatives abroad who believe the assets and organization of Hezbollah's formidable militant wing will enable a hobbled al Qaeda network to increase its ability to launch attacks against American targets."^[37]

Some American newspapers have suggested a broader alliance between Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.^[39]

On the other hand, others point out that al-Qaeda’s Sunni Wahhabist ideology is fundamentally incompatible with Hezbollah’s relatively liberal brand of Shia Islam; in fact, some Wahhabi leaders consider Hezbollah to be apostate.^[10] There is a Fatwa which issued several years ago by Sheikh Abdullah bin Jebreen, a former member of the Council of Senior Ulema, Saudi Arabia's highest religious body, it describes Hezbollah as "rafidhi" - a derogatory term for Shiites used by some Sunni fanatics.

"It is not permissible to support this rafidhi party ... or pray for its victory, and we advise Sunnis to disavow it,"

the fatwa says.

Even during 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict it was cited by some hardline Sunni Muslim clerics and others writing on Islamist website.^[11]

Al-Qaeda has demonstrated its distaste for Shi’as in suicide bombings and attacks on Shi’a civilian targets in Iraq.^[40] Hezbollah denies any ties to al-Qaeda^[41] and al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has issued an audio recording in which he called Hezbollah an "enemy of Sunnis" and a "shield" for Israel,^[9] for protecting Israel by preventing Palestinian attacks from Lebanon. Saint Petersburg Times and ABC News and MSNBC report that there exists no evidence of a connection between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.^[42][43] Nevertheless, the Washington Post claimed:

"There is little dispute that al Qaeda and Hezbollah operatives work together, but some analysts reject the notion that the two groups have buried their differences, which have long been sharp because they derive their support from the two competing branches of Islam."^[37]

Nasrallah denies links to al-Qaeda, present or past, stating in a 2002 interview that the two groups work in different areas and face different enemies. Hezbollah’s aim has been the "confrontation of the Zionist plan," said Nasrallah, while bin Laden has focused on Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Chechnya. "So we are talking about two different areas and battles facing two completely different enemies. This was the reason why there wasn’t any contact."^[7]

As part of a surge of intersectarian support for Lebanon’s Muslims during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, called for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Zionists and join the fighting in Lebanon.^[44] But Mohammed Fneish, Lebanon’s Energy Minister, one of the two Hezbollah members in government, responded "Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah are two different groups. Al-Qaeda believes in killing innocents. Hezbollah is involved in a legitimate resistance [against Israel]."^[8]

al-Mahdi Army

Hezbollah claims that it forbids its fighters entry into Iraq for any reason, and that no Hezbollah units or individual fighters have entered Iraq to support any Iraqi faction fighting the United States. On April 2, 2004, Iraqi cleric and Mahdi Army founder Muqtada al-Sadr announced his intention to form chapters of Hezbollah and Hamas in Iraq^[45], and Mahdi senior member Abu Mujtaba claimed they were choosing 1,500 fighters to go to Lebanon.^[46]

Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement

There have been American claims that Hezbollah has engaged in joint operations with the Sunni^[47] Palestinian militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement.^[48]

European Union

The European Union has not proscribed the activities of Hezbollah; the organisation does not appear on the EU's official list of terrorist groups.^[49]. Two EU countries have imposed partial or complete prohibitions on Hezbollah. The Netherlands has proscribed the organisation fully^[50][51], while the United Kingdom has proscribed Hezbollah's paramilitary External Security Organization, but not the organisation's political wing.^[52]

Attitude of Israel to Hezbollah

Dan Gillerman, Israeli representative at UN, on what he saw as Kofi Annan's failure during the Israeli bombing of Lebanon: "When you operate on a cancerous growth, you do not stop in the middle, sew the patient up and tell him, "Keep living with that growth until it kills you." You make sure it's totally removed."^[53]

"Why do you only address the Israeli bombings in Lebanon and not the shelling of our cities? Why don't you talk about the fact that those ruthless, indiscriminate animals yesterday targeted the holiest city, one of the holiest places to Christianity? Nazareth, in St. Paul Street, killing two little children, aged 3 and 9?!"^[53]

The Israeli Government considers the use of military force in Lebanon as a legitimate means of Isolating Hizb’allah.^[54]

Betar use the Holocaust and Nazis as a cognitive filter to describe Hezbollah.^[55]

Releationship with other Countries & Organisations

Hezbollah has been accused of "accused of training Shiite militiamen in conflict with Iraq's central government, and of helping to plan a brazen 2007 attack on U.S. troops."^[56] Besides Iran and Syria, Hezbollah also has ties with Russia, Cuba and Venezuela. It has had limited contact with the Provisional Irish Republican Army during the early 1990's.

Other groups' attitudes toward Hezbollah

Hezbollah enjoys support from many scholars including Noam Chomsky^[57] and American Jewish political scientist Norman Finkelstein. Speaking in a in interview with the Lebanese channel Future, Dr Finkelstein revealed his support for Hezbollah^[58].

Parliamentary secretary to the Canadian prime minister Jason Kenney said that negotiating with Hezbollah would be comparable to negotiating with the Nazi party in the 1930s.^[59]

The Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) compare Hezbollah to the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis.^[60]

Alan Deshowitz compares Nasrallah to Hitler, Hezbollah to the Nazis and Lebanese to collaborators and thus indiscriminate bombing is permissible.^[61][62]

The New York Sun used the Holocaust and Nazis as a cognitive filter to describe Hezbollah.^[63][64]

See also

• Hezbollah Ideology
• Hezbollah political activities
• Hezbollah military activities

References

External links

• Understanding the Iran-Hezbollah Connection U.S. Institute of Peace Briefing, September 2006
• Syria, Iran, and the Mideast Conflict
• Hezbollah: Between Tehran and Damascus
• Syria and Hezbollah: A Loveless Alliance