British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher denied on Wednesday that blacklisting Hizbullah is a justification for Israeli action in the country.
\n\u201cBlacklisting Hizbullah’s military wing is not a justification for Israeli action in Lebanon, but it meant to deter the party’s action in Europe,\u201d Fletcher tweeted shortly after the party chief’s speech on Wednesday.
\nSayyed Hasan Nasrallah had said during an iftar banquet that the European Union’s decision means it would share responsibility for any Israeli attack against Lebanon or Hizbullah.
\n“These (European) states have made themselves fully responsible for any Israeli attack on Lebanon or Lebanon’s resistance (Hizbullah) or any target of the resistance,” he stated.
\n“These states need to know… that they are giving legal cover to Israel for any attack on Lebanon, because Israel can now claim to be fighting terrorism and to be bombing terrorist targets,” he added.
\nThe decision to blacklist Hizbullah’s armed wing “gives Israel a service for free”, Nasrallah considered.
\n“This decision does not affect our willingness. Its objective is to make us bow, to force us to step back and to be afraid. But I tell you (Europeans): all you will get is failure and disappointment,” said Nasrallah.
\nEU foreign ministers on Monday decided to put the military wing of the Hizbullah on its list of terrorist organizations despite Lebanon warning against such a move.
\nHowever, EU representatives assured that they plan on continuing dialogue with different factions in Lebanon, including the blacklisted party.
\nUK Foreign Secretary William Hague had welcomed the EU’s decision.
\n\u201cIn reaching this agreement, the EU has sent a clear message that it stands united against terrorism. It shows that no organization can carry out terrorist acts on European soil, such as the appalling attack in Bulgaria one year ago, without facing the consequences. European nations have rightly come together in response.
\n\u201cDesignation will do nothing to affect the EU\u2019s and the UK\u2019s strong relationship with, and support for, Lebanon. As we have shown by our recent large increases in security and humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, the UK remains deeply committed to Lebanon\u2019s stability.\u201d
\nHe noted: “We will have to distinguish as best we can between the group’s various parts.\u201d
\n\u201cHizbullah has a political role in Lebanon, but violence… is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source:Naharnet.com
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/171fAfc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher denied on Wednesday that blacklisting Hizbullah is a justification for Israeli action in the country.
\n\u201cBlacklisting Hizbullah’s military wing is not a justification for Israeli action in Lebanon, but it meant to deter the party’s action in Europe,\u201d Fletcher tweeted shortly after the party chief’s speech on Wednesday.
\nSayyed Hasan Nasrallah had said during an iftar banquet that the European Union’s decision means it would share responsibility for any Israeli attack against Lebanon or Hizbullah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}