Hezbollah slams US, Israel for 'political discord'

Lebanese organization blasts Obama administration, Israel for allegedly stoking discontent in Lebanese politics.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
Lebanon's Hezbollah parliamentarians 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Lebanon's Hezbollah parliamentarians 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
BERLIN – The Lebanese political and militia organization Hezbollah blasted the Obama administration and Israel on Monday for allegedly stoking discontent in Lebanese politics.
Since US President Barack Obama termed Hezbollah a terrorist organization last month in Jerusalem and called on the international community to designate the entity as a terror movement, the Lebanese Shi’ite group has repeatedly fired back at the US in statements.
According to a Monday report in the Lebanese paper The Daily Star, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, said, “We are to this day still working with all our might to ward off the specter of strife [hanging over] our country – a strife we have rejected because it is a US scheme together with an Israeli project that is the basis for the discord moving from one region to another.”
“This is the destructive American project against Syria and the entire region – which aims to instill fighting and pushes with all its might to keep the bloodshed and destruction,” he said according to the paper, adding, “In Lebanon, we are facing the same problem with the Americans who are interfering in everything and trying to impose agendas and headlines.”
In Jerusalem, Obama called on countries to outlaw Hezbollah, saying “that’s why every country that values justice should call Hezbollah what it truly is: a terrorist organization,” making what was widely viewed as a clear reference to the ongoing EU talks about banning Hezbollah.
Only a small number of Western democracies – the US, the Netherlands and Canada – recognize Hezbollah’s entire organization a terrorist organization.
The United Kingdom has blacklisted Hezbollah’s military wing for targeting British soldiers for death in Iraq. Germany, Austria, France and Sweden have resisted including Hezbollah on the EU terror list.
Israel considers Hezbollah an enemy and terrorist organization.
The US government accuses Hezbollah leaders of aiding Syria’s regime in its bloodsoaked campaign to wipe out pro-reform activists.
Lebanon’s government dissolved last month and talks are under way to form a new one.
Hezbollah is considered a kingmaker in the formation of a new regime, but the Iranbacked group has encountered blowback from Lebanese Sunnis because of its support of Iran and Syria’s President Bashar Assad.
“Then the [US] comes out with statements calling for consensus among Lebanese and for elections to be conducted by the Lebanese people themselves,” Safieddine said.