Resistance Conference in Beirut Declares Resistance's Victory, U.S. Policy's Defeat in Region

The Beirut Conference: A Show of Strength by Resistance Organizations, Syria, and Iran


Y. Yehoshua
MEMRI
10 February '10

The first conference of the Arab-International Forum for Support of the Resistance was held January 15-17, 2010 in Beirut. Over 3,000 individuals from the Arab, Islamic, and Western world were in attendance; figuring prominently among them were leaders of the Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi resistance movements, and representatives from Iran and Syria.

The guest list included: Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas Political Bureau head Khaled Mash'al, and Iraqi Scholars Association chairman Sheikh Harith Al-Dhari, who represented the Iraqi resistance. There were also senior officials from Islamic and Arab countries, including Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Mir-Tajeddini, who read a letter from Ahmadinejad; a Syrian Ba'th Party official representing Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad; and numerous Lebanese officials, including a representative of Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, a representative of Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'd Al-Hariri, and former Lebanese prime minister Salim Al-Hoss. Also among the participants was International Union of Muslim Scholars head Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, as well as officials and intellectuals from various Western countries. The latter included British MP George Galloway, as well as former U.S. attorney-general Ramsey Clark and American attorney Stanley Cohen, who for years have been active in providing legal defense for accused terrorists.

During the conference, in what was in effect a show of strength by the elements of the pro-Iran camp, participants underlined the right to armed resistance against the Israeli and American occupations, and also the importance of the resistance in thwarting the West's policy vis-à-vis the Middle East and creating a just world order. The official website of the conference explained that the idea to convene it was born of the increase in pressure and in attempts to eliminate the option of resistance to occupation after the resistance "proved its great effectiveness in thwarting the hostile plans in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, and Afghanistan."[1] The conference's concluding statement called for coordination among all the resistance movements, and declared the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq to be a model for ways of "countering the terrorism being implemented by Israel and the U.S."[2]

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