US, UK say Hizbullah weaker after Beirut fighting

Rice, Miliband reject view that show of force by Shiite organization in Lebanon clashes increased its power, despite greater influence it gained in country's cabinet. France, US advancing Security Council resolution supporting deal reached in Doha between Lebanese factions

The United States and Britain said on Thursday they believed Hizbullah had been weakened by this month's fighting in Beirut despite the greater influence the militant group gained in Lebanon's cabinet.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband rejected the view that the show of force by Hizbullah had increased its power.

"Hizbullah lost something very important, which is any argument that it is somehow a resistance movement on behalf of the Lebanese people," Rice told reporters traveling with her and Miliband on a trip to her California hometown.

"What it is, is a militia that, given an opportunity, decided to turn its guns on its own people. It is never going to live that down," she said.

Hizbullah won concessions in an Arab-mediated deal reached on Wednesday, including a long-standing demand for veto power in the cabinet. The deal also resolved a dispute over a law for holding 2009 parliamentary elections, forming a new government and the election of a president, expected on Sunday.

Analysts, however, said the agreement was a clear defeat for Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government and demonstrated Hizbullah strength on the ground.

Miliband said Hizbullah had shown an "unacceptable" show of force in the streets which created an "illusion" of its power. More than 80 people were killed in the military campaign by Hizbullah amid fears of a return to full-scale civil war.

"What struck us in subsequent days is that the reaction of the people of Lebanon has been very negative about that. The guns of Hizbullah were trained on their own people. The long term consequences of that are potentially going to strengthen the forces of democracy in Lebanon," said Miliband.

The Bush administration, which labels Hizbullah a terrorist group, has put a favorable face on the agreement despite the concessions given to Hizbullah and has publicly praised the Arab role in getting the deal.

Rice said the United States was supportive of the Arab League's role and dismissed any suggestion that the United States was somehow losing its influence in the region.

"This is not the first time that the Arab states have taken on Lebanon without the participation of Europe and the United States," she said.

Meanwhile, the United States and France are advancing a United Nations Security Council resolution supporting the Doha agreement between the rival Lebanese factions in a bid to resolve the political crisis in Lebanon and obtain a lull.

The draft resolution, likely to be submitted on Friday, says that the Council welcomes and supports the agreement reached by Lebanon's leaders on May 21 and brokered by the Arab League.

It adds that the deal includes crucial steps towards a resolution for the current crisis, a return to a normal functioning of the democratic institutions in Lebanon and a restoration of the Lebanese unity, stability and independence.

The resolution, which is expected to be adopted Friday, also refers to previous Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 1559 which called for the removal of the foreign forces and the dismantling of the armed militias. It also mentions resolution 1701 adopted after the Second Lebanon War, which was followed by the stationing of a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.

No one in the west, particularly the US, and few in the Israeli government outside of the IDF, realize that we are all at war with Iran!

Hezbollah is just a proxy for Iran. It is financed and equipped by them and it does their bidding. The destabilization of the Lebanese government was just another move in their efforts to remove western and by that also Israeli influence from the Middle East. Hezbollah finds itself cornered in Gaza by the IDF who is strangling it by its blockade. They have to bring about an end to that blockade or face their demise and the return of Fat-ah as the only Palestine government. The way to Israel is to make it very uncomfortable for its major allies (US and UK) in the region and elsewhere. Control by Hezbollah of Lebanon is even better than having the Syrian Army there because Hezbollah doesn't have any large assets like Syria has and if we attack the Lebanese infrastructure, like the Israeli did in 1982, we only damage ourselves by hurting whatever influence we have left with the beleaguered Lebanese.

The realization that Iran is at war with the US is what is behind the high prices we are paying at the gas pump. Iran would like nothing more than to see an Obama Presidency. They'd be handed everything that they been working for all these years on a silver platter. And in the end the Iranians would predominate over Middle Eastern Oil.

The Saudis and Kuwaitis as well as the other producing countries see us unwilling to remove Iran's nuclear program or to engage their military forces. We refuse to venture into Iran and end the attacks against our troops stated in Iraq. Instead the President today was welcoming home five brigades from Iraq while General Patraeus was telling the Senate during his confirmation hearings that the Iraqis cannot take over their own security this year and may not be able to do so next year. As long as Iran is strong and Iraq is week we cannot leave without Iraq being encompassed into Iran along then with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Gulf states. Soon after Obama quits Iraq this will happen. The Russians will immediately cease their former Muslim Republics and encompass them into the CSI because the y wish to maintain their oil reserves for Putin, Inc. Obama will then be forced from Afghanistan if he hasn't already left. And that state will either end up in Iranian or Russian hands. They may split up the carcass or allow the new Caliphate to take all of it because it would make it easier for Pakistan and Western China, as well as most of western India and Indonesia to fall to the Caliphate. Israel will then be squeezed like a zit from a teenagers nose by the Iranian created Caliphate which shall also spread west into Egypt, the Golden Crescent, and North Africa. By that time gasoline should be about $10.00 a gallon the Iranian's will have the bomb, either the one they built or the Pakistani one, and Uncle Satan will start receiving the punishment they believe we so richly deserve. Of course, by then we'll all have socialized medicine along with nationalized petroleum, airlines, communications, and pharmaceuticals. Which I think would be punishment enough for us, but I don't think it will satisfy the Mullahs.

Everyone looking at the big oil companies and the lack of offshore drilling, or ANWR, or refinery capacity. Why don't you folks get it...the Muslims in Nigeria have stopped sending us oil, the Communist Dictator of Venezuela has through both his incompetence and design made it impossible for Venezuela to pick up the shortfall and they're now sending us less, and finally the Iranians who have large reserves that stop pumping to the west and they've intimated the rest of Middle East into the same position. In addition, Mexico, is also following their lead and not pumping at the rate they would in the past. The only was to end the price crisis in petroleum is to attack Iran and remove their nukes, the army, and their terrorist. Remember after the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War how petroleum prices plummeted after the bombing began? This despite the damage to the Kuwaiti and Iraqis oil facilities. Why was that? Because the Saudis realized that we were serious about achieving are policy objective of restore Kuwait as a sovereign independent state and they started pumping to support our effort which was their effort also. The same will hold true when we bomb Iran...the rest of the oil states will immediately start pumping to meet our demand. They will realize that the U.S. is serious about preventing a new Persian empire.

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