Alseyassah: Oppose "Hezbollah's backdoor to the UNSC"

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W. Thomas Smith Jr.

28 Aug 2009

Though barely registering a blip in Western media this week, there have been several reports – primarily throughout a variety of Middle East media – that Lebanon may well be a candidate for membership (though non-permanent) on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

According to several publications this week, Lebanese foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh says the UNSC membership would comply with a “contract” between members of the Arab League and the rotation of seats in the UNSC every two years, adding that the Arab League “has supported Lebanon's application.”

This of course would have huge implications for any future strategic decisions on Lebanon by the UNSC, because the Lebanon-based terrorist group, Hizballah, controls vast tracts of territory in that country, illegally maintains a vast array of weaponry from rifles to rockets, has infiltrated all levels of the Lebanese Army, holds parliamentary seats, has time-and-again shown its willingness to take up arms against the Lebanese people to achieve its political goals (we must never forget May 2008), and the group continues to conduct terrorist training, operations, and related smuggling of arms, cash, and men worldwide.

Yes, Hizballah is the same bunch that in 1983 – though under a different name then – murdered scores of our Marines, sailors, and soldiers in the infamous suicide-bomb attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut. Today Hizballah is trained, equipped, and heavily financed (an estimated $1 billion annually) by Iran, and the organization is operationally supported by both Iran and Syria. In fact just last year, former Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff said, “Hizballah makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team.”

And here’s another kicker which everyone seems to dismiss: Fawzi Salloukh – who is actively lobbying for Lebanon’s seat at the UNSC table – is a card-carrying member of Amal, one of Hizballah’s closest allies.

Hamid Ghoriafi, a London-based correspondent for the Kuwaiti newspaper, Alseyassah (Al-Siyassa), writes today (and I paraphrase based on a source’s translation from Arabic to English) that many Western nations will or should oppose Lebanon’s candidacy because:

• UNSC Resolutions 1559 and 1701 call for the disarming of Hizballah and other militias, and neither resolution has been implemented.


• Members of the Lebanese government belong to groups that are on designated-terrorist lists, and these groups represent Syrian and Iranian interests. Also, these groups and [supporting] countries are subject to the international tribunal for the assassination of [former prime minister] Rafik Hariri.


• A “fear” at the UN that foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh is a member of Amal, which is allied with Hizballah, which is allied with Iran and Syria. And [as a result of those alliances] any confidential discussions between UNSC members would be conveyed directly to Iran.


• Syria and Qatar played up to the secretary general of the Arab League, convincing him to propose Lebanon. He has agreed to propose without a grasp of “the danger he will be bringing to the UN.”

The alternative to Lebanon, according to Ghoriafi, is Saudi Arabia, which is widely considered by the UNSC “to be a stable country,” he says.

Read the article in Arabic at http://www.al-seyassah.com/news_details.asp?nid=68681&snapt=الدولي

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.