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