Blair Links Hezbollah to Iraqi Insurgency
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UNITED NATIONS – Prime Minister Blair and President Bush increased pressure on Hezbollah and the countries that sponsor its activities yesterday. In London, Mr. Blair pointed to a connection between the Lebanon based terror organization and terrorists conducting the insurgency in Iraq. In Washington, President Bush warned Iran and Syria against “collaboration” with terrorists.
The sharp accusation by Mr. Blair yesterday came shortly after a meeting between a Lebanese politician representing Hezbollah and E.U. officials. Britain currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Mr. Blair addressed reports in the British press that said recent deadly attacks on British troops in southern Iraq may have been carried out by terrorists using infrared tripwires to set off explosive devices – a technique favored by Hezbollah operatives. He linked Iran’s involvement in Iraq to the increased international pressure on its nuclear program.
“There have been new explosive devices used, not just against British troops, but elsewhere in Iraq,” Mr. Blair said at a press conference alongside the visiting Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. “The particular nature of these devices lead us either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah, because they are similar to the devices used by Hezbollah, which is funded and supported by Iran,” Mr. Blair said.
In Washington, President Bush twice denounced Hezbollah’s major state supporters, Iran and Syria, calling both “outlaw regimes” and saying, “State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a long history of collaboration with terrorists, and they deserve no patience from the victims of terror.”
Mr. Bush spoke one day after Secretary of State Rice met quietly with Secretary-General Annan’s point man for Lebanon policy, Terje Roed-Larsen. Mr. Roed-Larsen is expected to hand a report to U.N. Security Council members on October 19 and meet with them at the end of the month. On October 21, a U.N.-appointed German investigator, Detlev Mehlis, will give his report on the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, to council members who will formally hear his findings on October 25.
The council resolution that called on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon shortly before the February 14 assassination also called on all armed factions in the country to lay down their weapons. But until now the council, led by France and America, preferred to delay a confrontation with Hezbollah, the most heavily armed group in the country, to a future date, and at least until after the findings of the Mehlis and Roed-Larsen investigations are made public in Lebanon.
Europeans, led by France, have argued that Hezbollah is evolving into a Lebanese political entity and that pressure on the organization should be eased. Yesterday, the director of Israel’s foreign ministry, Ron Prosor, called E.U. representatives to complain about a recent meeting between the E.U., French, and Italian ambassadors in Beirut and Hezbollah’s representative in the Lebanese government, Muhammad Fanish.
The Lebanese government, meanwhile, has demanded that Mr. Mehlis remain in the country after the expiration of his mandate at the end of the Hariri investigation, arguing that he calms the Lebanese fears of neighboring Syria. Mr. Mehlis met with Mr. Annan yesterday in Geneva, and a U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said that the Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora, sent an official letter asking to extend Mr. Mehlis and his team’s stay in Lebanon. “Part of the team’s mandate concerns the strengthening of the Lebanese judiciary,” Mr. Dujarric said, indicating for the first time that Mr. Annan might agree to the request.