UN chief alarmed at Hizbullah actions in Egypt
Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen says Ban concerned over Shiite group's admission it provided support to Gaza terrorists from Egypt, reiterates call to disarm all Lebanese militias
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is alarmed at the public admission by Lebanon's terror Hizbullah group that it provided support to Gaza-based fighters from Egypt and condemns the "unwarranted interference" in Egypt's domestic affairs, a UN Envoy said Thursday.
Terje Roed-Larsen said the secretary-general urges Hizbullah to "cease any militant activities outside of Lebanon and complete its transformation into a solely Lebanese political party."
The UN chief also reiterates his call for Hizbullah and all other militias operating in Lebanon to be disarmed and demobilized as demanded by a UN Security Council resolution adopted in 2004, he said.
Roed-Larsen is Ban's envoy dealing with implementation of the 2004 resolution, and he discussed Hizbullah's alleged interference in Egypt as he presented Ban's latest report on compliance with the resolution to the Security Council.
Roed-Larsen said that in recent weeks, "There has been a growing concern that Hizbullah has engaged in clandestine and illegal militant activities beyond Lebanese territory."
'Unwarranted interference'
He cited Egypt's announcement on April 8 that it had uncovered a plot by 49 men linked to Hizbullah to destabilize the country by carrying out "hostile operations" on Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.
Two days later, Hizbullah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, rejected the accusations but admitted a Hizbullah member was in Egypt supervising weapons shipments to the militia's ally, the militant Palestinian group Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip.
Nasrallah said in a televised speech on April 29 that Hizbullah has no intention of setting up a cell in Egypt to destabilize that predominantly Sunni Muslim country.
Roed-Larsen said Egypt's president and foreign minister shared preliminary elements of the investigation into the Hizbullah cell with him during a visit to Cairo on April
26.
In recent correspondence, Roed-Larsen said, Egypt informed the secretary-general that a cell led by a Lebanese member of Hizbullah was uncovered during 2008, and that the Hizbullah operative "had visited Egypt over several years using a real passport with a false identity, where he recruited members for the network."
The secretary-general "has expressed concern at the statements made by Hizbullah leaders and condemned such unwarranted interference in the domestic affairs of a member state," he said.
"Equally alarming was the fact that Hizbullah has publicly admitted to providing support to Gaza-based militants from Egyptian territory," Roed-Larsen said. "These activities exceed Hizbullah's stated national agenda."
