UK envoy meets top Hizbullah official

Group's parliamentary leader, British ambassador discuss Lebanese vote, UN Resolution 1701.

Mohammad Raad 248.88 (photo credit: AP)
Mohammad Raad 248.88
(photo credit: AP)
Hizbullah parliamentary leader Mohammad Raad met British Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Guy on Thursday in the first such talks in the country between the group's political wing and a senior UK official. "The talks covered the recent elections and the situation in the region," Raad said in a statement following the meeting in the Lebanese parliament. "I believe the doors are open to further meetings," he told AFP. The British embassy confirmed that the talks had covered local politics. "Basically the meeting covered the elections and the formation of a new government," an embassy press officer told the news agency. The meeting also covered UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed at the end of the Second Lebanon War, the press officer said. Hizbullah is yet to decommission its weapons despite the resolution demanding the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon. In March, Bill Rammell, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, told the British Parliament that his government would hold discussions with Hizbullah's political wing "in the light of more positive developments in Lebanon."