Wikileaks: Sudan designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation

September 8, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudanese government maintains a secret list of groups and organizations that it has designated as terrorist ones, according to a cable published by WikiLeaks.

The leaked diplomatic note dated December 26, 2010 from the US embassy in Khartoum said that these lists “are not published, and are not accessible by other than through direct, personal contact with National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) officials”.

Surprisingly enough, Khartoum has included the Lebanon-based Hezbollah as one of the international terrorist groups it keeps under its watch, the cable reveals.

Other groups on the confidential list included Al-Qaeda, Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Al-Takfir Wel-Hijra was the only local group listed.

The disclosure will mark a new Wikileaks-related embarrassment for Khartoum after another cable showed a desire by the Sudanese government to normalize ties with Israel. Sudan has yet to comment on its normalization bid with the Jewish state.

An editorial in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Araby newspaper today blasted the Sudanese government and expressed “deep disappointment” saying that given Khartoum’s record in supporting Palestinian resistance movement it was deemed the least likely candidate to seek relations with Israel.

“The Khartoum government does not oppose rapprochement with Israel if the gives it way out of its crises and a ladder to befriend the White House” the pan-Arab newspaper said.

Hezbollah, meaning “Party of God” in Arabic, shares the Shiite Islamist ideology of the Iranian state. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards set it up in 1982 to fight Israeli forces which had invaded Lebanon. The group continues to enjoy strong moral, political and military support from Tehran and Damascus. The United States lists the group as a terrorist organisation.

The group is better known among the Arab public for its role in forcing Israel to withdraw from Southern Lebanon in 2000 after almost two decades of guerrilla warfare. They enjoy widespread sympathy in Sudan as well.

Amid Sudan’s row with the international community in mid-2006 over deploying United Nations peacekeepers to Darfur, president Omer Hassan al-Bashir pledged to resist it in a manner similar to Hezbollah.

In August 2006, Bashir commended “the steadfastness of Hezbollah under the leadership of [its leader] Nasrallah”.

Three years later, the Sudanese leader again took the opportunity to laud the Lebanese group.

“We trust Hezbollah and its leadership and we consider them a genuine resistance group deserving respect and honor” Bashir said.

Despite the public rhetoric, Sudan has maintained close counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States particularly in areas like the Horn of Africa. Sudan’s NISS also assisted Washington in infiltrating Iraqi insurgency groups and preventing foreign fighters from heading there.

Last month, the US State department said in its annual congressionally mandated report, that Sudan “remained a cooperative partner in global counterterrorism efforts against al-Qa’ida (AQ) in 2010”.

“During the past year, the Government of Sudan worked actively to counter AQ operations that posed a potential threat to U.S. interests and personnel in Sudan. Sudanese officials have indicated that they viewed continued cooperation with the United States as important and recognized the potential benefits of U.S. training and information-sharing”.

Despite this, US has maintained the East African nation on the list of states that sponsor terrorism despite promises to be removed this year. Washington appeared to have backtracked in its promise due to armed clashes that erupted in two of Sudan’s border states in recent months.

(ST)