UN joins Egypt's campaign against Hezbollah

The Daily Star - Lebanon BEIRUT: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern about Hizbullah operations outside Lebanese territories, saying interference in another country's internal affairs constitutes a violation of sovereignty. Egypt announced earlier this month that it had uncovered a plot by 49 men with links to Hizbullah to destabilize the country by carrying out attacks on Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.

But Nasrullah has denied Hezbollah had any such plans to unleash terror is Egypt. It is difficult see how such terrorism could possibly benefit Hezbollah. In fact the Lebanese resistance organisation has only ever launched attacks on Israel.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah does not deny that Hezbollah members have been or are in Egypt.

Nasrallah, while refuting Egypt's terror claims, defended his group's efforts to aid the embattled Palestinian resistance. "If helping our Palestinian brothers - whose land is occupied and who are being besieged, killed, displaced and starved - is a crime, then I officially confess," he declared.

A number of local commentators, meanwhile, question the terrorism charges levelled at Hizbullah by the government.

"Since its advent in the early 1980s, Hizbullah has only attacked Israeli targets on Israeli-occupied territory," said Rashwan, an authority on Islamist groups. "Under questioning, the accused men denied they were planning attacks in Egypt; they even said they were specifically ordered not to target Israeli interests in Sinai.
From the IPS

People in the Arab world are far more likely to listen to Nasrallah, known to be a man of his word, expecially in the military sphere, than to the corrupt dictator Mubarak whose credibility with his own people is pretty close to zero.