Senior Hezbollah security official makes rare visit to UAE to discuss detained Lebanese

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — A senior official with Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has made a rare visit to the United Arab Emirates to discuss the case of a dozen Lebanese citizens detained in the oil-rich nation over alleged links to the Lebanese group. The UAE, like other Arab gulf countries, considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization and over the years has detained and deported dozens of Lebanese citizens over alleged links to the group. A Hezbollah statement said Thursday that Wafik Safa, the head of the group’s Liaison and Coordination Unit, visited the UAE where he met officials involved in the cases of Lebanese detained there.