Hezbollah: Britain conducted a secret dialogue with the organization and then sought to exploit Hariri to dismantle his military capabilities - British documents

.British documents reveal that British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government sought twenty years ago to use Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to dissolve the military wing of Hezbollah, which was a pressing American-British goal.

According to the documents, which were recently declassified, Britain conducted a “useful” secret dialogue with Hezbollah and insisted on continuing this dialogue despite its failure to convince the party to limit itself to political work.

In early July 2003, Blair invited Hariri to visit London after a month of talks between the British Prime Minister and French President Jacques Chirac.

Chirac described Hariri as "a visionary" and "an intelligent commentator on the peace process, especially about the thinking of (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat," advising Blair to listen to him, as the British Prime Minister's documents indicate.

Britain and the United States were seeking, in cooperation with Israel, to convince Arafat of the necessity of working with Mahmoud Abbas “Abu Mazen,” who was imposed on him as prime minister with broad powers.