DELIVERY OF HIZBALLAH NON-PAPER TO SPAIN

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