Lebanon rejects labelling Hezbollah as terrorist group

Lebanon's caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour Friday rejected labelling Hezbollah as terrorist group, Xinhua reported.

"When some parties at the (Geneva II peace) conference described Hezbollah as a terrorist group, that was totally unacceptable, because the resistance, which honoured its country and people, struggled against the Israeli enemy and protected Lebanese land, cannot be given this label," Mansour said here after his return from the Swiss town of Montreux.

Mansour also noted that the formation of a transitional government in Syria would not help solve the long-standing crisis. "When one of the parties goes there and puts crippling preconditions, I believe this will not contribute at all to finding the solution."

The Geneva communique, adopted by the Geneva I conference January 30, 2012, envisaged a transition for Syria, but did not specify whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should leave. Thus the Syrian government rejects the opposition's contention that the Geneva I agreement urges President Assad to go.

Mansour said that in his speech he stressed "the need not to interfere in the Syrian affairs and that such interference will only complicate the crisis. When foreign parties describe the resistance as terrorist, this is unacceptable, regardless of the reasons behind this labelling."