Minister Likens PA Peace Agreements to Mecca Truce Broken by Muhammad
(JNS.org)— PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, in a sermon attended by PA President Mahmoud Abbas—on the day renewed peace negotiations with Israel were announced—compared PA peace agreements to a 10-year truce that was broken by the Prophet Muhammad after two years. On July 19 during a PA TV broadcast, the minister compared the Palestinian leadership’s approach to peace agreements such as the 1993 Oslo Accords to the “Treaty of Hudaybiyyah” between Muhammad and the Quraish Tribe of Mecca. Just like the Palestinian leadership encountered “much criticism and much opposition by some [Palestinians]” over the Oslo Accords, Muhammad was initially met with “anger and fury” from his followers for the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, Al-Habbash said. Questioned at the time why he didn’t decide to conquer Mecca, Muhammad assured his followers the 10-year truce would turn out to be a “victory. …In less than two years, the Prophet returned and based on this treaty, he conquered Mecca,” Al-Habbash said. “This is the example, this is the model [for contemporary agreements with Israel].” Similarly, the Oslo Accords brought Palestinians “to where we are today,” Al-Habbash said. “We have a [Palestinian] Authority and the world recognizes the [Palestinian] state.”
Iran Responds to Europe’s Blacklisting of Hezbollah
(TIP)—Iran’s government said the EU decision to include Hezbollah’s military wing on its terror blacklist ignores that Hezbollah is a unitary, hierarchical organization. As Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in October 2012: “We don’t have a military wing and a political one.” The EU Ambassador to Lebanon, Angelina Eichhorst, immediately reassured Hezbollah officials that the decision will not affect relations with the group’s “civilian wing.” She said that EU “financial assistance will continue,” and that Hezbollah has the right to challenge the EU decision before European courts, adding: “We will reevaluate our decision every six months.” Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah also brushed aside the decision and told the media that he was surprised it “had taken so long” for Western leaders to issue the designation. Other Hezbollah figures were less circumspect, with Hezbollah’s head of international relations Ammar Moussawi lashing out against the Europeans and describing the E.U.’s decision as an “insult because it equates resistance with terrorism.” The E.U. decision came after intelligence was presented in European capitals describing in detail Hezbollah’s campaign to target and murder civilians across the Continent and demonstrating the group’s responsibility for a July 2012 bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria that killed six. Bulgarian investigators have released more details about the bombing, to which they had previously linked Hezbollah, including the identities of the suspects. The Western-backed, anti-Syrian March 14 coalition issued a statement blasting Hezbollah for activities beyond Lebanon’s borders, linking those activities to the European designation, and calling the group to “return to Lebanon under Lebanon’s conditions… and to hand its weapons to the Lebanese Armed Forces and immediately withdraw from Syria.” Hezbollah militarily controls southern Lebanon and has thus far refused to cede sovereignty to Beirut.
