No, no, no:

The Obama administration is “comfortable” with the British government’s attempts to engage Hizbullah, a senior British diplomat asserts.

Bill Rammell, Britain’s minister of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, said in a brief interview late last week that despite protests to the contrary, the new US administration doesn’t object to the fledgling contacts with the “political win” of the Lebanon-based Shi’ite Muslim group, which also has a heavily armed militia.

Britain likens the attempt to engage Hizbullah, launched quietly this year, to London’s outreach to political leaders of the Irish Republican Army earlier – a move that helped quell the Northern Ireland conflict.

“We have a different approach on this issue at the moment with the United States,” he said. “But it’s not an issue of disagreement in intentions. The feedback we had on Lebanon is that the Americans are comfortable with us doing things differently than they are at the moment.”

The idea behind the new approach is clear: Obama cannot risk engaging with Hezbollah. At least, not now. If things go badly, the U.S. can say it was not involved and Democrats will not lose face internationally and they will not face increased criticism at home from staunch supporters if Israel and foreign policy hawks.

On the other hand, if the Brits get somewhere with the Shi’ite terrorist organization  the U.S. can jump in and take part of the credit.

Furthermore, it is likely that both the UK and the US believe a combined approach – a modern day version of good cop, bad cop – may achieve more than ‘bad cop’ only. Barack Obama has proved to be willing to talk to enemy regimes and terrorist organizations – he is a fervent believer in diplomacy. Since he cannot play the lead role yet, however, it makes sense for him to allow one of America’s most loyal allies, Britain, to do so.

Of course, both countries are making a tragic mistake. There is no reason to deal with Hezbollah as if it were anything but a terrorist and extremist organization bent on radicalization Lebanon and destroy Israel.Hezbollah isn’t in power in Lebanon as Hamas is in Gaza. The West is not forced to negotiate with the former, while ignoring the latter may prove counterproductive, simply because it has a lot of legitimate power.