Hizballah at the Moulin Rouge?

I apologize for missing the significance this bit of news last week: France invited all sides of Lebanon's political crisis to Paris for talks. Few Lebanese will turn down a junket to Paris (and in fact, all the parties agreed this was a good idea) but the chances that this will resolve the more than six month stalemate are pretty slim. So I left it at that.

But the ever-vigilant Jerusalem Post yesterday picked up what the Franco-Lebo-confab means for Israel: President Nicholas Sarkozy has invited Hizballah to France! Merde!

There goes Israeli hopes that France would follow America's lead and classify Hizballah as a terrorist organization. And it's a further sign that the Pro-American French President is charting his own course on Middle Eastern affairs, despite the fact that Lebanon was perhaps the one subject of agreement between America and France since... hmm... World War Two?

The French Foreign Ministry reminded the Jerusalem Post that France continues to support the disarmament of Hizballah. But they reason that the only way to maintain stability in Lebanon is to include Hizballah in a political solution. After all, they are are the largest political partying representing Lebanon's largest sect, Shia Muslims.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Erbil