Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement on Sunday dismissed as "baseless" recent remarks made by U.S. President George W. Bush accusing the group of using terror and violence against innocent civilians. Hezbollah said in a statement that any resistance movement in the world would be proud of being criticized by perpetrators "of global terrorism" such as Bush and his allies. Washington has accused Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition and Syria of trying to block Lebanon's efforts to elect a head of state to replace pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud, whose term ended in November.
The statement said Hezbollah fighters considered Bush's remarks "as proof that the Lebanese resistance group is on the right track. The whole world knows that the U.S. poses the most serious threat to international peace and security."
"Since the Beirut attack, we and citizens of many countries have suffered more attacks at the hands of Hezbollah and other terrorists," Bush last week on 25th anniversary of the April 18, 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut which killed 52.