LONDON: A leading member of the Shia Lebanese group Hezbollah has urged Britain not to bow to US and Israeli pressure by continuing to outlaw the organization. Rima Fakhry, the only woman member of Hezbollah’s leadership, spoke to the Guardian during a trip to London. The British government has outlawed Hezbollah’s military wing, which it calls its “external security organization”, because it regards it as a “terrorist operation.” A UK review of whether to ban the group’s political wing is expected to report soon, the Guardian has learned.

Mrs Fakhry urged Britain and Europe to resist US and Israeli pressure to decide Hezbollah is a terrorist group: “There is no reason for that and Europe knows it is not true Hezbollah is a terrorist group.” She said the group’s military actions were targeted only against Israelis inside Lebanon: “When someone comes and kills our people we have to kill him, and we have many ways to defend our people.”

Hezbollah was prominent in Lebanese armed resistance to Israel’s invasion and occupation. In 2000, when Israeli forces pulled out, Hezbollah claimed a small area of the country, Shebaa Farms, which borders Lebanon and Syria. The Israelis continue to occupy the farms, although the official view of Syria, the current Lebanese government and Hezbollah is that the area belongs to Lebanon, which is why Hezbollah engages with the Israelis there.

Mrs Fakhry, appointed to Hezbollah’s political council six months ago, said the group would ignore a UN resolution demanding militias in Lebanon disarm: “We keep our weapons because Israel occupies Shebaa Farms, we still have captives in Israeli jails and Israel is still practising violations against us.”

Israel accuses Hezbollah of aiding Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule and “terrorism” attacks against citizens of the Jewish state. Mrs Fakhry said: “We have no involvement in Palestine. We have strong feelings towards Palestine, if we can, we can help a lot. “We will send weapons if they need, but there are borders, it is difficult to get the weapons to them. “We are working for the liberation of Lebanese land. Inside Palestine is the role of Palestinians.”

She said she could not see a time when Lebanon and Israel could coexist peacefully: “Do you imagine one day the wolf and the sheep will live in peace? This is only in Walt Disney [films] maybe.” Mrs Fakhry said her group believes in the destruction of Israel and expulsion of tens of thousands of Jews: “This is a hope, a long-term strategy.

“Israelis don’t have a right to stay in Palestine, the state of Israel is an illegal state. “One day the Palestinians will destroy Israel and return to their land.”

She says the September 11 Al Qaida attacks on the US were wrong because they targeted civilians: “The US people are not our enemy, the US leadership is against us and it agitate the US people against Hezbollah.” The US brands Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation because it believes the group was involved in the kidnapping and murder of its former CIA chief in Beirut and in the 1983 bombing of a US marine barracks, carried out by a female member of Hezbollah, in Beirut which killed 240 Americans.

Mrs Fakhry said the attack, which followed US warships pounding targets on Lebanese land, was self-defence, words that will anger Washington: “It’s a result of what the US did to the Lebanese but we had nothing to do with it. “It is the right of someone whose family and children were killed because of the US bombardment. It was an act of self-defence, it got a result and the US went out.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service