Hizballah and Hamas in the News
By David Schenker
In a weekend of blockbuster news headlines—starting with North Korea’s detonation of yet another nuclear weapon—Lebanon and Syria once again made the front pages.
On Saturday Der Spiegel ran a story providing details of Hizballah’s involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. The story had been floating around for months, but this was the first major news outlet to run with the scoop.
Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah has dismissed the story as an Israeli fabrication, comparing it to similar stories published earlier in the Kuwaiti As Siyasa and in the Egyptian press. Despite the organization’s attempts at damage control, the story could impact the outcome of the extremely close Lebanese elections on June 7.
In other developments, An Nahar reported today that this past weekend, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov, in Damascus for talks with President Asad, met Hamas leader Khalid Mashal. According to a Hamas statement published in An Nahar, the Russians stressed the importance of contacts with Hamas, confirming that they made the right decision in establishing relations with the organization.
It’s unclear where this leaves the Quartet consensus requirements for Hamas to join a Palestinian Government of National Unity (i.e., abiding by previously made PLO agreements with Israel, rejection of violence, and accepting Israel’s right to exist).
