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Lebanon and the Middle East

I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a much bigger agenda and that Hezbollah will find many reasons to maintain its position in Lebanon. That is a poisonous process because, as long as Hezbollah acts as an alternative Government to the democratically elected Government in Beirut, there will be killing and illegal acts. We cannot accept that—it would be tantamount to us admitting that the IRA ran Northern Ireland and in doing so had a profound effect on the governance of the UK as a whole, which we cannot admit. There may be all kinds of rationalisations and some apologists will say, ““Well Hezbollah is defending a community.”” The defence of the community in Lebanon, no matter where it is, must be the responsibility of the democratically elected Government of the Lebanon: the Lebanese Government believe that and we believe that. We should defend that position and have no brook with the notion that a terrorist organisation such as Hezbollah has some kind of validity: it has no validity. It may be an expression of popular opinion in the south of Lebanon; so be it. Many terrorist organisations have had those kinds of rationales and support, but that does not mean that we, the international community, should for one moment support that; we cannot support it.