'Lebanon speaker pleased with 2006 Israel raids' 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Lebanon's parliament speaker, a seemingly unshakeable ally of the powerful Shiite Hizbollah, drew pleasure from Israel's deadly raids on the group in 2006, a leaked US diplomatic cable said.

The July 2006 cable, classified confidential and released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks last week, said speaker Nabih Berri suggested the conflict was an opportunity to deal a serious blow to the Iranian- and Syrian-backed group.

"Berri condemned the ferocity of Israel's military response but admitted that a successful Israeli campaign against Hizbollah would be an excellent way to destroy Hizbollah's military aspirations and discredit their political ambitions," read the cable, filed by former US ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman, now an undersecretary of state.

Berri, a veteran Shiite politician who has held the post of parliament speaker uninterrupted for almost two decades, responded to the cable Monday by saying his Amal Movement remained a staunch ally of Hizbollah.

"The Amal Movement was and remains a fundamental ally of Hizbollah," said a statement from his office.

"We have demanded the US State Department provide us with the original cable through its embassy in Lebanon to determine whether WikiLeaks or Feltman is the liar."

In his cable, Feltman indicated that Berri's comments appeared to be motivated by the fact that Hizbollah holds unrivalled command over Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community.

"We are certain that Berri hates Hizbollah as much, or even more, than the [Western-backed] March 14 politicians; after all, Hizbollah's support... is drawn from the Shiites who might otherwise be with Berri," read the cable.

Feltman described Berri as having had "remarkably high" spirits during the meeting, which came a few days into the monthlong war between Israel and Hizbollah that summer, at one point throwing his head back in "riotous laughter".

The US diplomat also said Berri felt betrayed by his fellow Shiite, Hizbollah commander Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who had promised stability in Lebanon.

"We can never sit down at the table with him [Nasrallah] again," Feltman quotes Berri as saying in the cable. "We think he lied to us."

The 2006 war between Israel and Hizbollah was sparked on July 12 by the cross-border kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and ended on August 14, three days after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire.