20 March 2016By Tariq Alhomayed
In an attempt to justify the statements that he made after the Gulf states and
the Council of Arab Interior Ministers classified Hezbollah as a terrorist
organisation, the leader of the Tunisian Ennahda Party, which was originally
inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Rachid Ghannouchi said that his
party cannot absolutely declare Hezbollah's activities as ''terrorist''. He also
pointed out that there are many points of difference between Hezbollah and his
party and that he does not support all of the organisation's activities at
present.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Ghannouchi said that he appreciates the great
role that Hezbollah played in resisting the Israeli enemy in the years 2000
and 2006 and everyone acknowledges that role but that he totally disagrees
with its support for the counter-revolution in Syria and siding with the Assad
regime against the will of the Syrian people''. The truth is that this is
simply not true. First, what it is attributed to Hezbollah regarding the
conflict with Israel in the year 2000 is actually known as the Israeli
unilateral withdrawal from the safety zone plan. As for the war in 2006 in
Lebanon, the facts say that there wasn't any Arab consensus or recognition of
Hezbollah's role. Rather, there was a famous historical Saudi speech during
the era of the late King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in which the war in 2006 is
described as an ''adventure''. The matter does not end there- Ghannouchi's bad
luck would have it that a television interview was held during which the
leader of the terrorist organisation Hassan Nasrallah says very clearly that
if he knew that kidnapping two Israeli soldiers would have led to the 2006
war, he would not have allowed this to happen.
On top of this, when the leader of the Tunisian Ennahda Brotherhood party said
that he ''completely differs with Hezbollah in its support for the
counter-revolution in Syria and siding with the Assad regime against the will
of the Syrian people'', he is not speaking clearly but according to the new
Brotherhood way that is known as ''the pious Sunni'' way. According to him, what
Hezbollah is doing in Syria is not classified as supporting the counter
revolution – this is not true at all. The truth is that Ghannouchi wants to
score points; he considers what happened in Egypt in opposition to Morsi and
the Muslim Brotherhood as a ''counter revolution'' and therefore wants to say
now, specifically to his followers, that he is against those who support
counter revolutions everywhere. However, the truth is that what Hezbollah is
doing in Syria is criminal and classified as terrorism and not ''a counter
revolution''.
According to the British Foreign Office's Twitter account, 470,000 Syrians
have been killed and 1,000,500 wounded so far and the criminal of war is one
man- Bashar Al-Assad. How can Ghannouchi say after all this that he ''differs
with Hezbollah'' and that he believes that what he is doing in Syria is only
''supporting the counter revolution''? Who is Ghannouchi trying to convince when
he justifies the Muslim Brotherhood's positions that support Hezbollah and
Iran?
Tariq Alhomayed is the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat.
Mr. Alhomyed has been a guest analyst and commentator on numerous news and
current affair programs, and during his distinguished career has held numerous
positions at Asharq Al-Awsat, amongst other newspapers. Notably, he was the
first journalist to interview Osama Bin Ladin's mother. Mr. Alhomayed holds a
bachelor's degree in media studies from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah.
He is based in London.
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