(CNSNews.com) – As Lebanon’s election campaign formally begins, Hezbollah is flexing its muscles, basking in new-found legitimacy in Europe while warning the United States that its ambassador will not dare to intervene in Lebanon’s internal affairs after the June 7 vote.
 
The Iranian-backed Shi’ite movement, which calls itself “The Resistance,” on Monday introduced its candidates and announced its platform for the parliamentary election. On the key issue of the future of its fighters and weapons, it said Hezbollah’s “expertise and capabilities” should be used to strengthen the nation’s defenses against threats posed by Israel.
 
“The Resistance places its resources and capabilities in the service of Lebanon,” Mohammad Raad, head of the group’s parliamentarians, said during a press conference in Beirut.
 
Exactly how it envisages doing so is unclear, but the Lebanese Armed Forces are being funded and trained by the U.S. while the very existence of a Hezbollah armed force violates U.N. Security Council resolutions.
 
Resolution 1559 of 2004 calls for “the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias,” while resolution 1701 of 2006 requires “the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that … there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.”
 
The State Department has designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997. Before 9/11, it was responsible for the deaths of more Americans in terrorist attacks than any other terror group.
 
Last month, however, the British government announced it would resume contacts with what it described as Hezbollah’s “political wing.”
 
Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Hajj Hassan said this week that the organization’s image in the West was changing. Hassan was speaking on his return from a visit to Britain, where he had been invited by left-wing lawmakers to visit the House of Commons and address a pro-Palestinian meeting.
 
“The British public opinion has changed,” he told reporters at Beirut airport. “This is clearly reflected within the media. We work to change the international public opinion in favor of our causes as part of our media and political work.”
 
A British Home Office minister responsible for policing, Vernon Coaker, said in parliament last Thursday that “a thorough review of Hezbollah and the extent to which various parts of the organization are concerned in terrorism … concluded that a distinction could be drawn between those parts of Hezbollah which are legitimately involved in Lebanese politics and those which are directly concerned in terrorism.”
 
Washington’s policy remains unchanged, however.
 
“We see no distinction between the leadership and funding of the group’s terrorist, military, political and social wings,” deputy assistant secretary of State for Near East affairs Jeffrey Feltman, a former ambassador to Lebanon, told U.S. lawmakers in March. He pointed out that Hezbollah, itself, makes no such distinction.
 
In Beirut, U.S. Ambassador Michel Sison also reiterated that the U.S. position differed from that of Britain. The U.S. did not differentiate between political and military wings, and Hezbollah remained on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, she said.
 
Hezbollah’s Raad took a swipe at Sison during the election campaign press conference.
 
“Who is Sison to say that Hezbollah represents a threat to Lebanon and the region?” he asked. “Maybe she meant the party poses a threat to the Zionists and their interests in the region and Lebanon,” he added, saying if that was the case, Hezbollah would be “proud” to be categorized as such.
 
Another Hezbollah electoral candidate, Nawwaf Moussawi, also attacked Sison on Monday, saying during a campaign meeting in southern Lebanon that her presence at a recent graduation ceremony for Lebanese internal security force members was an offense to Lebanon’s sovereignty.
 
After the election, he said, Sison would not dare to interfere in Lebanon’s internal affairs with such “audacity.”
 
Moussawi also accused the U.S. of acting like a “lord” of Lebanon and interfering in the election campaign.
 
Before being appointed a candidate, Moussawi served as Hezbollah’s foreign relations officer. He has been a member of the organization’s “politburo” since 1985, according to a profile on the Hezbollah Web site.
 
According to Walid Phares, a Lebanon-born senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the politburo “oversees the military, security, doctrinal and political actions of the entire apparatus – there is no structural delineation.”
 
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who serves both as chief political executive and military commander, has welcomed Britain’s policy change, but says Hezbollah will never accept as a condition for dialogue – from Britain or the U.S. – the recognition of Israel.
 
Hezbollah eyes future
 
A pro-Western government led by the “March 14 Alliance” took power in Lebanon in 2005, following the “Cedar revolution” that was sparked by the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
 
But an 18-month political crisis, largely triggered by Hezbollah, later paralyzed the country. After Hezbollah gunmen took over parts of Beirut last May a unity government was eventually formed in a deal that gave Hezbollah effective veto power.
 
Hezbollah heads an opposition coalition, the “March 8 Alliance,” which currently controls 56 seats in the 128-member parliament.
 
Nasrallah last week portrayed his organization and its allies as the only hope for a national unity government after the June elections. If the Hezbollah-led alliance wins, he said, it will form a unity government with other parties. If it loses, however, it will not join a unity government.
 
Saad Hariri, son of the slain former premier and head of the Western-backed majority bloc, has already ruled out joining a unity government led by Hezbollah and its allies.
 
The U.S. administration is clearly concerned about the possibility of a Hezbollah win.
 
During his congressional testimony on March 24, Feltman voiced support for the Lebanese people themselves choosing the composition their next government, without outside interference, intimidation or violence.
 
But he also suggested that future U.S. aid would be conditional on the makeup and policies of the next government.
 
“We anticipate that the shape of the United States’ assistance programs in Lebanon will be evaluated in the context of Lebanon’s parliamentary election results and the policies formed by the new cabinet.”
 
The U.S. has since 2006 provided the Lebanese Armed Forces with more than $410 million worth of equipment and training. It is also training internal security force personnel.