Mona Ziade
Daily Star staff

US Ambassador Vincent Battle accused Lebanon on Tuesday of continuing to shelter “terrorist organizations,” dealing a blow to efforts to shake off the country’s civil war image as a haven for militant extremists. The remark, the first on the issue since Battle assumed his post last week, left Lebanon puzzled as to its place in the international coalition to combat terrorism which the United States has been trying to create since last week’s disastrous spate of terror in New York and Washington. It also raised concerns about opening old sores that could strain relations with Washington. Battle said that a “while back” Lebanon and Syria were handed lists of organizations and individuals implicated in “terrorist” attacks. He made no demand for arrests or extraditions, and did not mention any organization by name. But the US State Department’s blacklist is known to include Hizbullah, among other groups, most of which have ceased to exist since the end of the war in 1990. While the US might agree that postwar Hizbullah was strictly a resistance movement, it has not altered its views regarding the group’s involvement in bombings, hijackings and kidnappings that targeted Americans in the 1980s. Washington dropped Lebanon from its list of states sponsoring terrorism in 1997, but has repeatedly reminded the government that it needed to cooperate with efforts to bring to justice those involved in past attacks. The latest reminder, however, came as Battle was formally delivering to the Foreign Ministry Washington’s conditions for joining an international coalition. High on the list are demands for the arrest and prosecution of those identified by Washington as “terrorists” and the extradition of those wanted for trial in the United States. A list entitled Specially Designated Terrorists, which is posted on the website of the Office of Foreign Assets Control in the US Treasury Department, names four wanted Lebanese: Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the widely revered Shiite spiritual guide, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah’s secretary-general, the group’s former leader, Sheikh Sobhi Toufeili and Imad Moghniyeh, a former Hizbullah security chief. Fadlallah has strongly condemned the airborne attacks in the US in a rare show of sympathy for a superpower he views hostile to Arabs and Muslims. But on Tuesday he posted a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from joining any US-led military offensive against and Islamic state. It was not clear whether the religious edict was in response to Battle’s accusations or a coincidence. “As you know, we have in the United States a list of terrorist organizations that is updated every year,” Battle told reporters at the Foreign Ministry. “And there are organizations in Lebanon that are terrorists.” He said he had “good discussions” with Director-General Zuheir Hamdan and Naji Abi Assi, the head of the ministry’s political section. “I shared with them the need for a strong coalition of friendly countries from all over the world, including this part of the world,  to fight terrorism and this is likely to be our dialogue in the near term,” Battle said. On his whirlwind tour of officials, he also met Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares, Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. He capped the day with a session with Prime Minister Rafik Hariri at the latter’s home in Koraytem. Hariri’s media office quoted the premier as insisting that US efforts to form an international coalition to combat terrorism “have to be coupled with active involvement by Washington to revive the Mideast peace process.” Political sources said that Battle invoked UN Resolution 1250, which condemns acts of terrorism and invites the world community to cooperate in fighting it.
Hariri, the sources said, insisted that UN resolutions related to the Arab-Israeli conflict also should be implemented as perceptions of “double standards” would backfire on America’s credibility. After talks with Jumblatt at the Druze leader’s home in Clemenceau, Battle said: “It is very important that the American government and people understand what the peoples say in respect of the ordeal and what happened.” Replying to a question, Battle said terrorism was international and backed by certain countries “and we are considering ways of stopping terrorism.” One type of cooperation is to exchange information about people who may be involved in terrorist operations, he added. He stressed that Beirut was engaged in “big cooperation” with the Washington on the issue of terrorism. Jumblatt said the US authorities’ failure to “watch out” for what happened was unbelievable, and urged dealing with the “defect” in US-Islamic ties. Jumblatt said the main problem was Palestine and the second is how to deal with matters, conduct an American-Arab and an American-Islamic dialogue and “reconsider the stand toward certain repressive regimes that do not serve US interests.”