Hezbollah finds left-leaning friends abroad
Through a front organization, officials meet with activists opposed to U.S. policies.
BEIRUT — Hezbollah has extended its international reach by establishing contacts with left-leaning, environmental and peace groups opposed to U.S.-led economic globalization, analysts and people tied to the group say.
The Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant organization and political party, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, has participated through a front organization in dozens of gatherings where attendees criticized U.S. foreign policy and global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The aim, analysts say, is to rally support for armed opposition to Israel among groups that regard the West's policies as a threat to developing countries and to the environment.
Think tank: An Aug. 30 article in the A section about the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah reaching out to the international left gave the wrong name for a Hezbollah- affiliated think tank. The organization's name is the Consultative Center for Studies and Documentation, not Beirut's Center for Strategic Studies.
"Hezbollah succeeded in incorporating the idea of resistance as part of the international anti-globalization movements," said Abdel-Halim Fadlallah, vice president of Beirut's Center for Strategic Studies, the Hezbollah-affiliated think tank that often participates in activities abroad.
"Through our contacts with these groups, we have managed to challenge the idea that Hezbollah is a dogmatic terrorist Islamist organization and convince part of the international left that we can be a strong partner," he said.
Despite significant ideological differences between Hezbollah and the groups, opposition to U.S.-led military operations and economic policies fostered by Washington has brought them together.
Hezbollah has long sought to downplay its previous calls for the establishment of an Islamic state in Lebanon, where Shiite and Sunni Muslims make up more than 60% of the population. It has dramatically shifted its political rhetoric away from religious politics since the 2006 conflict with Israel and now often depicts itself as a universal movement fighting Israeli domination.
"We think of the sacrifices of all the militants in Lebanon and Palestine and the Arab world from Islamists to nationalists to Arabists or any ideological background they come from," Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, said in July.
Hezbollah-affiliated officials represent the group at gatherings of the World Social Forum, the largest convention of leftist political parties from around the world and organizations opposed to international financial institutions.
Fadlallah said members of the Hezbollah-linked think tank were invited in 2007 to an exclusive meeting of the organizers of the forum.
