Lebanese Muslim religious leaders strongly condemned United States aggression against Afghanistan today and urged Muslim governments not to support the US-led military action there.
"It is necessary to help the oppressed Afghan people to victory and not permit America to harm them, by refusing to open land and airspace to America's armies and its allies", the clerics said in a statement faxed to
Reuters.
The statement came at the close of a conference of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim religious leaders today. The delegates were mainly moderates but included a representative from the Syrian and Iranian-backed Hizbollah.
The clerics expressed sympathy for the innocent victims of the deadly September 11th attacks on New York and Washington, for which Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect.
They called on the American people, however, to oppose their government's air strikes on Afghanistan - where bin Laden is believed to be hiding - saying the military action would only harm the impoverished Afghan population.
The clerics urged the international community to agree on a clear definition of terrorism which would involve recognising legitimate resistance to foreign occupation.
"It is essential that the Intifada in occupied Palestine and resistance in southern Lebanon continue and that they are backed until the last inch of our sacred soil is liberated", said the statement.
"Hizbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are freedom movements and therefore legitimate movements", they said.
The militant Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have staged bombings and suicide attacks against Israel during the year-long Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Hizbollah helped end Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon last year and now vows to drive Israel from the Shebaa Farms on the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.