Hezbollah Welcomes Mohammed Morsi

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Monday hailed the election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi as president of Egypt as “historic,” and said it hoped the country would regain its leadership role in the Arab world.

“Hezbollah congratulates the great Egyptian people for this historic election,” the Shiite militant party said, adding that it hoped Morsi would enable Egypt “to regain its leadership role in the Muslim-Arab world and to define the future of the region.”

Hezbollah, which has had strained ties with Egypt for decades, had praised Egyptians on their “historic victory” after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February 2011.

The party — which opposes the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel — sparked Mubarak’s ire in late 2008 by accusing him of complicity with Israel during the Jewish state’s offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian courts in 2010 sentenced 26 people, four in absentia, for allegedly planning attacks in Egypt on behalf of Hezbollah.