UPDATED: U.N. AND U.S. "ACCEPT" HEZBOLLAH

U.N. Must Accept Hezbollah, Annan Says
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations must recognize Hezbollah as a force to be reckoned with in implementing the U.N. resolution calling for the withdrawal of all Syrian forces from Lebanon and the disarmament of the country’s militias, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday....

Annan said the world needs to accept that in every society different groups may hold different views. “Of course, we need to be careful of the forces at work in Lebanese society as we move forward,” he said. “But even the Hezbollah — if I read the message on the placards they are using — they are talking about non-interference by outsiders ... which is not entirely at odds with the Security Council resolution, that there should be withdrawal of Syrian troops,” Annan told reporters. “But that having been said, we need to recognize that they are a force in society that one will have to factor in as we implement the resolution,” he said.

US Called Ready to See Hezbollah in Lebanon Role. (NYT)
WASHINGTON, March 9 - After years of campaigning against Hezbollah, the radical Shiite Muslim party in Lebanon, as a terrorist pariah, the Bush administration is grudgingly going along with efforts by France and the United Nations to steer the party into the Lebanese political mainstream, administration officials say. The administration’s shift was described by American, European and United Nations officials as a reluctant recognition that Hezbollah, besides having a militia and sponsoring attacks on Israelis, is an enormous political force in Lebanon that could block Western efforts to get Syria to withdraw its troops. ...

“Hezbollah has American blood on its hands,” an administration official said, referring to such events as the truck bombing that killed more than 200 American marines in Beirut in 1983. “They are in the same category as Al Qaeda. The administration has an absolute aversion to admitting that Hezbollah has a role to play in Lebanon, but that is the path we’re going down.” Only a few weeks ago, the United States was tangling with France over Hezbollah’s status, as France blocked an effort by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to have Europe formally label Hezbollah a terrorist group, restricting its fund-raising.

Now the United States has basically accepted the French view, echoed by others in Europe, that with Hezbollah emerging as such a force in very fractured Lebanon, it is dangerous to antagonize it right now and wiser to encourage the party to run candidates in Lebanese elections.

UPDATE: Rice says US opinion of Hezbollah has not changed
MEXICO CITY (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US still considers Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization despite the group showing its major political influence in Lebanon this week with a huge demonstration in Beirut. “The American view of Hezbollah has not changed,” Rice told reporters on a plane bound for Mexico.