Hizballah Exploiting Wikileaks Cables

U.S. cooperation with pro-Western Lebanese politicians is actually a conspiracy against Hizballah, according to identical reports on the terror organization's news website and in Iranian media. The stories cite U.S. diplomatic cables released by the website Wikileaks and say the United States backed a compromise Lebanese presidential candidate in order to "embarrass" Hizballah and harm its political allies.

From Hizballah's perspective, the documents show the subservience of Saad Hariri's pro-Western bloc to the United States and their Saudi allies. "They [the Wikileaks releases] confirmed that the 'battle' against Hezbollah was the essence of all challenges in the country in the eyes of the Hariri bloc," the article said. The Wikileaks cables, which show an embattled politician playing power politics against Hizballah, are characterized by Hizballah to try to show pro-Western forces as Saudi and American puppets.

The piece also declares that Hariri supported presidential candidate Michel Suleiman, an independent that he supposedly thought could be manipulated, to offset Hizballah. A November 2007 cable shows that the United States was wary of Hariri's "plan B" option, despite his assurances that "Suleiman was not responsible for Hezbollah's smuggling of arms into Lebanon."

Another Wikileaks document from Nov. 3, 2007, quoted Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Abdul Aziz Khoja's conversations with Lebanese politicians. Hizballah's article noted that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah had told Saad Hariri to wait until after the parliamentary elections to be named prime minister. "The leaked cable said that 'Yes Sir' is Hariri's only reply to any Saudi proposal," Hizballah's article said, portraying him as a Saudi agent.

The article is meant to put pressure Hariri's political bloc, which has tried to steer a course between positive relations with the West and preserving Lebanese independence. His bloc, made up of Sunni and Christian groups, is at odds with Shiite militias and their Christian and Druze allies.

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