US embassy cable - 05MADRID988

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DELIVERY OF HIZBALLAH NON-PAPER TO SPAIN

Identifier: 05MADRID988
Wikileaks: View 05MADRID988 at Wikileaks.org
Origin: Embassy Madrid
Created: 2005-03-15 11:33:00
Classification: CONFIDENTIAL
Tags: ETTC PTER EFIN SP EUN
Redacted: This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.


 
C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000988 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2015 
TAGS: ETTC, PTER, EFIN, SP, EUN 
SUBJECT: DELIVERY OF HIZBALLAH NON-PAPER TO SPAIN 
 
REF: A. STATE 44347 
     B. MADRID 777 
     C. MADRID 643 
     D. MADRID 490 
 
Classified By: Political Officer Ricardo Zuniga for Reasons 1.4 (b) and 
 (d). 
 
 Poloff delivered non-paper on designating Hizballah as a 
terrorist organization to Enrique Mora Benavente, Head of EU 
Policy Planning at the MFA on March 14.  Mora Benavente was 
glad that the U.S. had provided information regarding 
Hizballah's terrorist activities, and he promised that the 
GOS would consider the non-paper carefully.  He told Poloff 
that there are three elements to Spain's current policy 
towards Hizballah:  (1)  Spain would like to see hard 
evidence of Hizballah's support of terrorist activities in 
Palestine; (2)  Spain does not want to upset the current 
Middle East Peace Process by designating Hizballah as a 
terrorist organization if the Palestinians under Abu Mazen do 
not support such a designation; and (3) Hizballah is a key 
player in the Lebanese political process and alienating 
Hizballah will alienate 40 percent of Lebanon's population. 
Mora Benavente further added that listing Hizballah as a 
terrorist organization would be counterproductive to Spain's 
current counter-terrorism strategy with the Islamic world. 
He said that Spain would lose credibility in the Arab world 
with its fight against al-Qaida if it equated Hizballah, a 
strong political and genuinely popular force in Lebanon, with 
al-Qaida. 
MANZANARES 

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