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Why It Is Critical to Shut the Door on Hizbullah Entirely
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Sir John Jenkins - It is good news that the Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced the outlawing of the political wing of Hizbullah in the UK. I was Director for the Middle East and North Africa in the Foreign Office at the time of the 2008 decision to identify and ban Hizbullah's military - but not its political - wing. But the distinction was always really casuistry, given the unambiguous integration of both wings under a single central command structure and strategic direction. Hizbullah is a terrorist organization, responsible for profoundly destabilizing parts of the Middle East. As such, it is hostile to the interests of Britain and its allies. The Iranian Islamists with whom Hizbullah is allied say quite truthfully that the Iranian Revolution was a cultural attack on the West. And in the speeches of the top theorist of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hasan Abbasi, you will find clear evidence of a level of existing hostility that will hardly be mitigated by maintaining diplomatic engagement with Hizbullah.