Lebanon asks US to reverse ban on Hezbollah TV

BEIRUT — Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has urged the United States to reverse a decision to ban the Hezbollah television channel, Al-Manar, during talks with US Senator John McCain.

"President Sleiman asked that Washington backtrack on its decision to ban certain television channels, including Al-Manar," a statement from his office said after the Friday meeting.

Sleiman's concerns come after the US House of Representatives passed a bill in December calling for punitive measures against Middle East television networks seen as fueling anti-American hatred.

Arab information ministers are due to meet on January 24 at the Cairo headquarters of the 22-member Arab League to discuss the US bill.

The bill, adopted in a decisive 395-3 vote, asks President Barack Obama to report, six months after the text has passed, "on anti-American incitement to violence in the Middle East, and for other purposes."

"For years, media outlets in the Middle East have repeatedly published or broadcast incitements to violence against the United States and Americans," the bill read.

The networks listed include Al-Aqsa, the television station of the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas, which broadcasts from the Gaza Strip, and Hezbollah's Al-Manar.

Al-Manar is on a list of terrorist organizations announced in December 2004 by the United States, where the television has lost its feed and is banned from broadcasting.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and its key Middle East ally Israel, although the Shiite movement is a major political party in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has two ministers in the new national unity cabinet that US- and Western-backed Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri unveiled in November.