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Foreign relations of Hezbollah
This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2010)
Hezbollah has a Foreign Relations Unit (Arabic: وحدة العلاقات الخارجية, romanized: Wahdat al-‘Ilāqāt al-khārijiyya) and maintains relations with a number of foreign countries and entities.[1] These are particularly Shia states, but also Sunni groups like those affiliated with the Palestinian cause; and the group is also suggested to have operations outside the Middle East in places such as Latin America[2][3] and North Korea.[4]
Hezbollah has especially close relations with Iran,[5] with the Alawite leadership in Syria, specifically with President Hafez al-Assad (until his death in 2000) and his son and successor Bashar al-Assad,[6] and has sent fighters in support of Assad in the Syrian Civil War. Hezbollah declared its support for the now-concluded Al-Aqsa Intifada.
There is little evidence of ongoing Hezbollah contact or cooperation with al-Qaeda.[7] Hezbollah's leaders deny links to al-Qaeda, present or past.[7][8] Al-Qaeda leaders, such as former al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,[9] consider Shia, which most Hezbollah members are, to be apostates, as do Salafi-jihadis today.[10][11]
The 9/11 Commission Report, however, found that several al-Qaeda operatives and top military commanders were sent to Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon in 1994.[12]
^Cite error: The named reference Security was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Ha'aretzArchived 17 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine 14 August 2008, UN: We've cleared half the cluster bombs Israel dropped on Lebanon By Shlomo Shamir