Israel Matzav

JPost confirms: Carter met with Fadlallah

The Jerusalem Post and al-AP have confirmed a story broken by Debbie Schlussel Wednesday night that former President Jimmy Carter met with Hezbullah spiritual leader Hussein Fadlallah in Lebanon. Of course, you would never know it from the innocuous headline ("Lebanon cleric praises Obama's speech, but calls for action").

US President Barack Obama's speech reaching out to Muslims had strong points, Lebanon's most influential Shi'ite cleric told former president Jimmy Carter, but people were waiting for real results.

Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah made the comments Tuesday night during a meeting at his office with Carter, who was in Lebanon to monitor last weekend's parliamentary elections.

In his speech in Cairo on June 4, Obama promised to work aggressively to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, called for a halt to Israeli settlement construction on lands claimed by the Palestinians and spoke of the need for a Palestinian state.

Fadlallah, widely believed to have been Hizbullah's spiritual leader in the 1980s, is a harsh critic of US policies in the Middle East, which many Arabs believe are biased toward Israel.

Though he has since distanced himself from the group, he has followers worldwide among Shi'ites, including in Iraq.

Fadlallah also criticized US allies in the region for being undemocratic.

"The friends of the United States in the Arab world don't have elections or democracy, but [rather] regimes that are run by intelligence agencies and emergency laws," said a statement released by Fadlallah's office, in an apparent reference to US allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

I wonder what would have happened if anyone had asked him about Israel.

Heh.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:24 PM