Europeans reach out to Hizbollah's backers

BRUSSELS, Aug 2: European governments are reaching out to Hizbollah's foreign backers, Iran and Syria, in an attempt to engage them in a solution to the Lebanon war by recognising their importance for regional stability.

While the United States, Israel's main backer, is unwilling to talk at a senior level to either country - seen as ''rogue states'' in Washington -European foreign ministers have no such taboo if dialogue can help extinguish fires in the Middle East.

But beyond making Syrian and Iranian leaders feel respected, it is not clear what the Europeans can offer to persuade Damascus or Tehran to lean on Hizbollah guerrillas to stop firing missiles into Israel or accept eventual disarmament.

''There can be no effective solution without Syria,'' Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said after European Union ministers held emergency talks on the crisis yesterday.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former EU Middle East peace envoy, was due to visit Damascus today after talks in Beirut with the Lebanese government, including two ministers who are Hizbollah loyalists, diplomats said.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy met his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, in Israeli-bombed Beirut on Monday and raised some eyebrows by saying Iran ''plays a stabilising role in the region''.

He sought to clarify that comment in Brussels, saying: ''Iran has a share of responsibility in the current situation, so Iran can play a role in its solution, and can therefore contribute to stabilisation in the region.'' EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has also maintained regular telephone contact with Iran's national security chief, Ali Larijani, since the breakdown of talks on Tehran's nuclear ambitions on July 11, his office said.

Solana said Moratinos would be talking to the Syrians ''doubtless on behalf of all of us, including myself''.

LOGGERHEADS

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who said in a newspaper interview published yesterday that Syria was ''too important a regional player to be excluded'', will speak to Syrian officials today, a ministry spokesman said. Germany also suggested that the Middle East Quartet -- the United States, UN, Russia and EU - plus possibly Egypt should play a role in peace efforts.

Both Syria and Iran are at loggerheads with the West -- Damascus over its alleged role in the 2004 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and Tehran over its nuclear programme, a suspected front for making a bomb.

Some diplomats speculate that Syria may be amenable to a political settlement if it gets assurances that President Bashar al-Assad will not be troubled further over the Hariri killing and the revival of a stalled EU economic cooperation package.

But others doubt Damascus will end military and logistical support for Hizbollah because Syria's undeclared policy since the 1970s has been that Israel cannot have peace on its Lebanon border as long as it occupies the Golan Heights.

''Moratinos certainly can't give them the Golan Heights,'' a Middle Eastern diplomat said.

As for Iran, many European diplomats say it has emerged as a winner from the Lebanon conflict so far, diverting international pressure from its nuclear programme, showing the damage its missiles can wreak and elevating Hizbollah to hero status in much of the Arab and Muslim world for resisting Israel.

''The best we can hope is that the Iranians stop while they are winning and don't overplay their hand in Lebanon,'' one said.

European countries are just as worried as pro-Western Arab governments at the emergence of the Shi'ite Islamic Republic as an increasingly powerful force in the region while the United States is mired in a turbulent Iraq.

''Iran is taking a new role in the West Asia. It is not an Arab power but it is becoming the most important power in the Arabian peninsula,'' a senior European diplomat said.

REUTERS