U.S.-Hizbullah (Mideast-Report‪)‬

Will Obama Administration Open Dialogue with Hizbullah? Will the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama eventually seek direct engagement with Hizbullah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed powerful Shiite Muslim group long labeled by Washington a "terrorist organization", as a means of advancing peace in the turbulent Middle East region? This question, which has been raised before, is gaining credence now amid a stalled U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace process and a wave of popular uprisings in the Arab world that has so far led to the overthrow of two of America's key Arab allies: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Tunisian President Zine al-Abiddine Ben Ali. Other leaders of pro-U.S. Arab countries facing serious threats to their regimes from pro-democracy public protests are Yemen, Jordan and Bahrain. Also, the fact that America and its strategic ally Israel, have had to eventually recognize and negotiate peace with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, after dismissing it for long years as "a terrorist organization" enhances the prospects of a similar U.S. gesture toward Hizbullah if Washington wants to promote a just and durable peace in the Middle East.