United Nations deputy secretary:"not helpful" to label Hezbollah terrorists
Financial Times  | 8/1/06
 

Mark Malloch Brown, United Nations deputy secretary on July 31, 2006:
 

"What is troubling to me is the US and UK now carry with them a particular set of baggage in the Middle East. The challenge for them is to recognise that ultimately they have to allow others to share the lead in this effort diplomatically and (in putting together) a stabilisation force."

"It’s not helpful for it again to appear to be the team that led on Iraq or even on Afghanistan. It’s not helpful to couch this war in the language of international terrorism. Hizbollah employs terrorist tactics, it is an organisation however whose roots historically are completely separate and different from Al Qaeda."
 

"It draws on a strong political well of support in southern Lebanon and after the events of the last few weeks more deeply, and until that is addressed you are not going to stop it."