Hezbollah back in US sights after bombing

The Syrian-backed group now finds itself the target of US-led condemnation after years of assiduously trying to cultivate a more respectable political image.

When the Bush administration named President Bashar Assad’s Syria as being responsible for last week’s killing of Hariri in central Beirut by a suicide bomber, it launched an international diplomatic drive to have Hezbollah, Syria’s protg, expelled from its offices in Damascus and internationally outlawed.

Washington is also demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, two of the Bush administration’s target states, is accused of fomenting trouble in southern Lebanon to try to disrupt the ceasefire signed by Israel and the Palestinians on February 8.

Palestinian security officials trying to improve relations with Israel also accuse Hezbollah of sending large amounts of money to militants in the West Bank, encouraging them to step up attacks on Israel.

The US also accuses Hezbollah of sending insurgents to Iraq to fight the coalition forces. Iraqi interior minister Falah al-Naqib said early this month that his government had seized 16 Hezbollah members.

Faced with this welter of accusations, Hezbollah last week issued a denial that it funded Palestinian militants or sent activists to Iraq.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, told a Shi’ite religious gathering in southern Beirut: "We have no organisation or networks either in Iraq or anywhere else in the world.

"Let Iraq utter the full name of even one of them. If there are any groups in the world that carry the name of Hezbollah, they are not an extension of us. With all modesty, we know our limits and we know our capabilities. We also know our responsibilities well and we never transgress them."

Hezbollah came into being in 1982 when Israel attacked Syrian forces in Lebanon. Iran sent in the Revolutionary Guards, who established and trained the Shia militia, Hezbollah. It was under Hezbollah’s aegis that a plethora of terror groups was spawned, which kidnapped Americans and other Westerners and bombed the US and French embassies.

Hezbollah has grown into a powerful cultural and political force in Lebanon, operating hospitals, schools and even its own television station.

Active armed members are estimated at about 1,000, and the group has wide-reaching support among Lebanon’s Shi’ite population. Its leader Nasrallah was a former leader of the rival Shi’ite movement Amal.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, which Hezbollah officially denounced, the US asked Lebanon to freeze the group’s assets - a move that the Lebanese government has so far resisted.

Last week, as quickly as the fingers started pointing towards Syria, rumours also began to spread in Arab countries that the Israeli spy agency Mossad was behind Hariri’s death as the Jewish state and the US would be seen to benefit the most from increased instability in Lebanon. The allegations were made on Islamic websites and repeated on the al-Jazeera television station.

But in Israel, government officials loudly rejected the claims, instead expressing fears that, if anything, increased instability would only serve to benefit Hezbollah.

Ra’anan Gissin, a senior adviser to Sharon, told Scotland on Sunday: "If you were to define a major threat to peace and stability in the region it would be Syria and their proxy, Hezbollah. Hezbollah will try to torpedo any peace developments that take place between the Palestinians and us."

Speaking at a foreign correspondents’ function last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, while cautious when it came to pointing the finger, noted the Syrian occupation in its northern neighbour. "This only emphasises the need to be very, very careful in our steps toward peace and to do it in stages, in order to be sure that the development really moves us to peace," he said.

Sharon also spelt out a long list of conditions for Syria to meet before Israel would resume peace talks over the Golan Heights. Negotiations between the two foes collapsed in 2000, and Syria has repeatedly requested to resume them.

However, Sharon said that before any resumption, Syria would have to expel terrorist groups from its territory, end its occupation of Lebanon, allow Lebanese forces to take control of its border with Israel and stop acts of aggression against Israel.

Syria denies there are any terrorist offices on its territory, insisting that they are only "media offices".

Syria has never been more unpopular in Lebanon, and last week thousands of mourners signed a huge banner spelling out "Resign" in French and Arabic near Hariri’s grave in a rare display of anger against Prime Minister Omar Karami’s pro-Syrian government.

Syria is unlikely to quit Lebanon quickly despite the international pressure and the upsurge of popular anger against Assad at last week’s funeral. Analysts say that Damascus will cling to its influence in Lebanon, even if it eventually pulls out its remaining troops to meet international demands.

"The Syrians have a mentality of resilience and defiance," says Lebanese political scientist Sami Baroudi. "There will be no 180-degree change."

Syria regards Lebanon as within its sphere of influence, and it is well known that Syria’s generals have lucrative corrupt businesses there.

FALSE DAWN

THE early promise of a more open political and economic system in Syria under President Bashar Assad, when he took over from his father in 2000, has not been fulfilled, despite the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

Among those who thought it worthwhile wooing Assad was Tony Blair, who travelled to Damascus in 2001 only to find himself listening to the president launch a vitriolic attack on the US campaign in Afghanistan at a joint press conference. Nevertheless, Assad was still given the red carpet treatment when he undertook the first visit to Britain by a Syrian president the following year, which included tea at Buckingham Palace with the Queen and Assad’s British born and educated wife, Asma, left.

But the pace of change in Syria alarmed the three pillars of the Syrian establishment - the army, the Ba’ath Party and the ruling Alawite minority - and the authorities began clamping down again.