UK ambassador’s blog praising ayatollah removed

The UK’s ambassador to Lebanon has had a posting from her blog taken down by the foreign office after it provoked anger from Israel for describing a senior Lebanese cleric as “a decent man”. The news comes the day after it emerged CNN had fired its senior Middle East editor, Octavia Nasr, for tweeting that the same ayatollah was “a giant I respect a lot”.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died in Lebanon on Sunday, was said by many in the West to be the ‘spiritual leader’ of militant movement Hezbollah – though he and the organisation both denied this. Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by the US and Israel, and its military wing is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.

Frances Guy, the British ambassador to Lebanon, has met with Hezbollah leaders several times – and also knew Fadlallah. In her disputed blog post this week she wrote: “When you visited [Fadlallah] you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person.”

She added: "That for me is the real effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith."

Guy’s comments provoked outrage from Israel. Yediot Ahronot, spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry, told the Israeli press: “We believe that the spiritual leader of [Hezbollah] is unworthy of any praise or eulogising.”

“If Hezbollah was firing missiles at London and Glasgow, would this leader still be called 'decent'?” he added.

It’s significant that Guy is not just the second person this week to find themself in hot water for mourning Fadlallah’s passing – but the second woman. While Guy did not mention Fadlallah's stance on women’s rights in her eulogy, CNN’s Octavia Nasr praised him for exactly that - and it was his relatively progressive views on the issue which set Fadlallah apart from many of his contemporaries.

Fadlallah ruled that women were the equal of men, denounced domestic violence, forbade female circumcision and argued that abortion was acceptable in cases where women faced serious health risks if pregnancy continued.

He condemned the 9/11 attacks - though he also advocated suicide bombings against Israel and was alleged to have been linked to the 1983 suicide blasts that killed more than 300 American marines in Beirut.

In any case, Frances Guy seems to have been in no doubt of Fadlallah as a force for good. "The world needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths, acknowledging the reality of the modern world and daring to confront old constraints," she wrote. ·