Mansour Contacts 28 EU Foreign Ministers Asking Not to Blacklist Hizbullah
Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour sent on Friday letters to 28 of his European counterparts asking them to “act according to President Michel Suleiman's guidance” regarding placing Hizbullah on the list of "terrorist organizations."
"Mansour hoped in the letters that the European Union's ministers would not blacklist Hizbullah,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
Mansour explained that the party (Hizbullah) is a “main component of Lebanon's politics and is represented at the parliament and in the cabinet.”
He warned: “Blacklisting Hizbullah would have negative consequences on the political scene in the country.”
"But we stress on the importance of the great bilateral relations between Lebanon and the EU and we thank the support of the union's member-states to Lebanon in various fields.”
Meanwhile, the NNA said that Loyalty to Resistance bloc head MP Mohammed Raad telephoned Suleiman, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Mansour, thanking them on their efforts that aimed at blocking the blacklisting of Hizbullah.
Earlier on Friday, Speaker Nabih Berri contacted the president to thank him for his stances that support Hizbullah against some European and Arab attempts to list it as a terrorist group.
He thanked him in a telephone call for asking the European Union to refrain from placing the party on its list of terrorist organizations.
He added that the president took this measure “in spite of local and Arab efforts that claim to seek Lebanon's best internal interests.”
Berri also thanked some European countries that refused to list Hizbullah as a terrorist group “because they reject pleasing Israel at Lebanon's expense.”
The Presidency on Thursday announced that Mansour has been tasked to ask the EU to refrain from putting Hizbullah on its list of terrorist organizations.
EU foreign ministers are set to decide Monday whether or not to add the military wing of Hizbullah to its list of terrorist groups.
A meeting of EU ambassadors on Thursday broke up with no agreement on adding the powerful group to the list as "a small number of member states" remained opposed, said an EU diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Ministers will discuss the issue on Monday," said the source, referring to scheduled talks in Brussels between the bloc's 28 foreign ministers.
Unanimity is required to add the Lebanese group to the dozen people and score of groups currently subject to an EU asset freeze -- including Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Colombia's FARC guerrillas.
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