Posted on 03/12/2009 8:27:37 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
(CNSNews.com) – The British government is facing criticism over plans for a Hezbollah spokesman to visit the country just days after London announced that it will pursue official contacts with the “political wing” of the Shi’ite terrorist group.
Coming ahead of elections in Lebanon that could further strengthen Hezbollah and at a time when the U.S. is re-engaging Hezbollah’s ally, Syria, the British policy shift move is being closely watched in the region and beyond.
A conservative think tank in Britain said it would instruct lawyers to seek a warrant for the arrest of Ibrahim Moussawi if he is allowed into the country. The Lebanese national is scheduled to address an academic seminar on political Islam in London on March 25.
The Center for Social Cohesion (CSC) has written to Home Secretary Jaqui Smith to protest the decision to allow Moussawi entry.
CSC director Douglas Murray asked Smith why her department had not applied in Moussawi’s case its stated policy of banning entry to those who “stir up tension and provoke others to violence” – a policy recently applied to bar the Dutch lawmaker and Islam critic Geert Wilders.
He expressed concern that the government “finds it acceptable that an individual who incites hatred against the Jewish people and of Israelis should be permitted to enter.”
CSC researcher Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens called Moussawi “a member of a terrorist group that is ideologically devoted to the destruction of Israel and the extermination of Jews worldwide; a group which murders political opponents as a matter of policy and terrorizes members of the Lebanese population who dare to defy them.”
Earlier, the opposition Conservative Party’s spokeswoman on security affairs, Pauline Neville-Jones, also urged Smith to bar Moussawi, in line with measures the government announced last year making it easier to block entry to extremists.
A Home Office spokesman said in response to the appeal that “exclusion decisions are based on hard evidence not hearsay, and are targeted at those who seek to stir up tension and provoke others to violence regardless of their origins and beliefs.”
Moussawi was banned from visiting Ireland on security grounds in 2007 but has entered Britain in the past. Those previous visits were before the Home Office tightened entry regulations last year.
The University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, which has invited Moussawi to address the seminar, describes him as an “expert on Hezbollah and Islamist political theory.” It also notes an earlier role as “head of the foreign department at al-Manar TV, the official media outlet of Hezbollah.”
In fact, Moussawi, who is also chief editor of the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Intiqad, has been quoted as a spokesman for Hezbollah for more than a decade. (A Nexis search of media reports shows he was being identified as such as early as April 1996, and as recently as last week.)
Terrorism/politics
Hezbollah (“Party of Allah”) is an Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi’ite organization that has fought on and off against Israel since the early 1980s, including a full blown month-long war in mid-2006, when it fired some 4,000 rockets into Israeli territory.
It has been linked to terrorist attacks in Lebanon and around the world, most notoriously suicide bombings in Beirut in 1983 which killed more than 300 people, including 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 French troops; and the bombings of Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina in the early 1990s, at the cost of 114 lives.
Before 9/11, Hezbollah was responsible for the deaths of more Americans in terrorist attacks than any other organization, according to the U.S. government.
In Lebanon, where it is known as “the resistance,” Hezbollah is also a major political force, part of an opposition pro-Syrian coalition known as the “March 8 alliance” which controls 56 seats in the 128-member parliament.
Political and terrorist functions are controlled by a single coordinating council, according to Western intelligence evaluations, and the U.S., Israel, the Netherlands and Canada, recognizing no distinction between military and political “wings,” have outlawed Hezbollah in its entirety.
Britain and Australia have banned what they call the “military wing,” also known as the “External Security Organization.”
Britain ended all dealings with Hezbollah in 2005, but said last week it was re-establishing official contacts with its “political wing.” (Moussawi was among several spokesmen featured in wire service reports as welcoming the move on behalf of the organization.)
Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell told lawmakers the main reason for the shift was last year’s formation of a unity government in which Hezbollah is taking part.
The government’s overriding objective, he said, was “to press Hezbollah to play a more constructive role and move away from violence.”
U.S. stance ‘unchanged’
Britain’s policy shift was announced on the heels of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s White House talks with President Obama, and ahead of a visit to Damascus by U.S. envoy Jeffery Feltman.
Washington says it has not changed its stance towards Hezbollah, but the timing of the British move provoked speculation in the region that the Obama administration, which is reaching out to Syria and Iran, was involved.
“No one believes that the timing of the British decision is a mere coincidence on the eve of the U.S. delegation’s visit to Lebanon and Syria,” commentator Zuheir Kseibati wrote in Lebanon’s Dar al-Hayat this week. “No one believes that Britain took this initiative without any coordination or distribution of roles with the United States.”
Far from publicly object to the British shift, the State Department responded mildly. Spokesman Gordon Duguid said earlier that British officials had advised the U.S. of the move in advance, and the U.S. would watch to see how the British policy proceeded.
On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison reiterated that Washington’s position on Hezbollah was unchanged. It remained on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, and there was no difference between its military and political wings, she told reporters in Beirut.
A pro-Western government came to power in Lebanon in 2005 but an 18-month political crisis, largely triggered by Hezbollah, paralyzed the country. A unity government was finally formed last July in a deal that gave Hezbollah effective veto power.
New elections due in June are expected to be a close race between the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance and a pro-Western, anti-Syrian coalition.
Sison declined to say how the U.S. would respond should the Hezbollah-led grouping win the elections. “We don’t make decisions based on a crystal ball,” she said.
Hezbollah’s continued existence as an armed force violates U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Resolution 1559 of 2004 calls for “the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias,” a call reinforced in resolution 1706 of 2006, which requires “the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that … there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.”
Official of (international Islamic terrorist organization) Hezbollah - welcome.
Brits, looks like you got some housecleaning to do too.
I have to conclude that high-level officials in London are taking bribes from the Saudis and/or other Arab nations.
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hezbollah_e008.htm
Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC)
March 17, 2009
“Hezbollah welcomed the British policy of opening a direct dialogue channel, but made it clear to Britain and the United States that they would receive no political flexibility in return. Hezbollah stressed it would never recognize Israel, be incorporated into negotiations with it, or abandon terrorism.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.