GCC declares Hezbollah ‘terrorist’ – ‘RECRUITING YOUNG, SMUGGLING ARMS … INCITING SEDITION’

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DUBAI, March 2, (Agencies): The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) named Hezbollah a terrorist organisation on Wednesday, opening up the possibility of further sanctions against the Iran-allied group that wields infl uence in Lebanon and fi ghts in Syria. The Sunni Muslim dominated council — representing Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar — already imposed sanctions on the Shiite Muslim group in 2013 after it entered Syria’s war in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

In Wednesday’s announcement, GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani said the council would now “take the necessary measures to implement its decision … based on anti-terrorism laws applied in the GCC and similar international laws”. Zayani did not specify what action might follow, but Saudi Arabia, the biggest power in the grouping, last week said it had blacklisted four companies and three Lebanese men for having links to Hezbollah.

Zayani accused Hezbollah of committing “hostile acts” against GCC states, including recruiting young men to carry out “terrorist attacks, smuggling weapons and explosives, stirring up sedition and incitement to chaos and violence”. Individual members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have already labelled Hezbollah a terrorist group. There was no immediate reaction from Hezbollah. But a day earlier, its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had said Saudi Arabia had pushed Lebanon into a new phase of political confl ict by announcing it was suspending an aid package to the Lebanese army.

Nasrallah also stepped up criticism of Saudi Arabia, accusing it of directing car bombings in Lebanon. Leading Sunni power Saudi Arabia and its Shiite regional rival Iran compete for infl uence across the region and back different factions in divided Lebanon. Former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, a key ally of Saudi Arabia, called the GCC decision a result of Hezbollah’s actions around the region. “What Hezbollah is doing in Syria and Yemen is for me criminal, illegitimate and terrorist,” he said.

Hariri spoke in Beirut following a parliament session to elect a president for Lebanon. The attempt failed just like the previous 35 attempts over a lack of quorum. The post has been vacant for nearly two years. The GCC’s designation against Hezbollah brings it in line with the United States, which is closely allied with the Gulf states and has long considered Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization. The European Union only lists the military wing of Hezbollah on its terrorist blacklist. Wednesday’s move against the group refl ects deeper regional divisions between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran, Hezbollah’s patron.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran earlier this year after protesters angry over the kingdom’s execution of infl uential Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr set fi re to the Saudi Embassy and another diplomatic mission inside Iran. Saudi Arabia in 2014 designated a Saudi affi liate of Hezbollah a terrorist group along with the Muslim Brotherhood, al- Qaeda, Yemen’s Shiite Houthis and other groups. The Emirates previously labeled regional Hezbollah affi liates with similar designations.

The GCC announcement came a few hours after a televised speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in which he harshly criticized Saudi Arabia for punitive measures that targeted Lebanon recently, including the halt in aid and Gulf travel warnings. He repeated his accusations that Saudi Arabia was directly responsible for some car bombings in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and he denounced Saudi “massacres” in Yemen.

“Who gives Saudi Arabia the right to punish Lebanon and its army and Lebanese people living in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf just because Hezbollah is speaking out? We urge Riyadh to settle accounts with Hezbollah and not all the Lebanese,” he said. He also accused Saudi Arabia of seeking to cause strife between Sunnis and Shiites everywhere in the world and said its execution of al-Nimr in January came in that context.

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