[ad_1]
US State Department counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales revealed sensitive information indicating that since 2012, Hezbollah has stockpiled large amounts of ammonium nitrate in Europe similar to those present in the port of Beirut.
In a conference call, Sells said that the party had transported such materials through Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, and that large amounts of ammonium nitrate were found in France, Greece, Italy and Great Britain and destroyed.
“We have our reasons to confirm that these activities are still continuing,” he added. “Therefore, we continue to view Hezbollah as a threat not only to the United States but also to our European allies,” Sells said.
The US counterterrorism coordinator stated that, “from what we saw in the port of Beirut, the destructive power of ammonium nitrate is capable of causing massive destruction when used as an explosive. Therefore, the United States called for a comprehensive, transparent and open investigation. from the explosion, and we hope to see that soon. “
Sales said the United States has classified all of Hezbollah since 1997 as a terrorist organization and encouraged every country in the world to take the same step.
He rejected the “wrong” notion that there is a difference between the so-called political wing of Hezbollah and the terrorist branches of the party. He called on European countries and the world at large to designate Hezbollah in its entirety. The European Union asked to extend the classification of the party’s military wing to the entire organization.
Sales expressed his belief that Hezbollah is not a stabilizing force in Lebanon, on the contrary, it is a force of instability.
He said: “The solution for the United States is to recognize the reality that Hezbollah is not a political organization or a legitimate representative of the Lebanese people, and is nothing more than a terrorist organization that exists to shed blood all over the world and works for the benefit of their masters in Iran. The solution to this problem is to marginalize and isolate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. ” “.
Sales explained that France and the United States share the same goal in Lebanon. “We all want a sovereign, prosperous and stable Lebanon, and at the same time we have to admit that we have some fundamental differences on how best to achieve this goal,” he said.
He added: “We do not believe that it is an auxiliary matter to establish relations with Hezbollah, which is an illegal political actor from our point of view. He stressed that this type of participation (referring to the meeting of President Macron with the Hezbollah deputy, Muhammad Raad) has an interest in giving legal status to a terrorist organization. ”
He noted that the American approach, on the other hand, is based on engaging with legitimate members of the Lebanese state, including providing great assistance to these institutions in the hope that the Lebanese state can stand up and become strong and prosper without Hezbollah interference.
The US official added that since 2006, the United States has invested more than two billion dollars to improve the services of the security services and has allocated more than one billion dollars in economic aid to Lebanon.
Sells concluded: “We all want the same for Lebanon, but to achieve it, it does not need to go through Hezbollah. The United States wants to see Lebanon as an independent and prosperous master emerging from the current crisis in a way that allows it to achieve this. objective and we believe that the best way to achieve it is not through Hezbollah legislation as a player. ” Political, but through its marginalization, isolation and dependence on other legitimate elements of the Lebanese state and society. “
