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Hezbollah MP Denies Party Operates Outside of Lebanon | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Hezbollah Member of Parliament, Hassan Hubballah, has denied allegations about Hezbollah training Iraqi militia members in Iran are “a mere fabrication and without any basis in truth,” and regarded this as part of an intense pressure campaign against the resistance because of its steadfastness against the aggression of June 2006.

In a telephone interview with Asharq Al-Awsat yesterday, Hubballah said that the Party does not have “any military training centers in Iran, training Iraqis or anybody else,” adding that “The Party does not have any activities outside Lebanon’s borders.

The Party does have alliances with other resistance movements and states that regard resistance a right of the peoples whose land is under occupation. Apart from that, we do not have any military or non-military activities outside Lebanon.”

Such reports, said Hubballah, comes “in the course of exerting pressure on the resistance because it defeated the aggression of the Israeli enemy in June 2006 and caused the failure of the American project, which the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked about at the beginning of that war when she said – we are witnessing the labor pains for the birth of a new Middle East.” Huballah placed the whole issue within “the framework of vengeance against Hezbollah’s defenses and steadfastness in the face of the US project, whose aim is to weaken Lebanon after being made an open arena for the passage of the project for the settlement [of Palestinians in Lebanon].

He explained that “the American deviation started by describing the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine as terrorism. Here was the beginning of the deviation and wrongdoing, and what is based on wrong must be wrong. As far as we are concerned, the United States is the head of terrorism; it supported the Israeli aggression in its war on Lebanon, who is a UN member, and it is still supporting that aggression. American threats and the threats of their tools in Lebanon will not dent the resolve of the resistance to defend Lebanon.”

On the other hand, a high-ranking US military source in Baghdad has confirmed the validity of the New York Times story, adding, “We have detained one of those trained” in Iran. The source explained that the American forces “are unsure of the size of the operation” concerning the training of Iraqis in Iran in order to join the militias and private forces in the country.

The source, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, said that “American forces will cooperate with the Iraqi Security Committee, which is documenting Iranian interventions, in consolidating the evidence they obtain with evidence we have been gathering for sometime.” And, a high-ranking military source stressed that “the solution of this problem will be by diplomatic means in the first place, between the Iraqis and their neighbors,” adding that “Iraq has to bring this fact up in their bilateral relations and demand a radical solution for it.” It is expected in the next few days that the US military leadership in Iraq will be apprised by the Iraqi authorities of the results of discussions conducted by an Iraqi Parliamentary Committee in Iran.