Arab League foreign ministers declared Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah a “terrorist” group at a meeting of Council of the Arab League in Cairo on Friday.
“The Arab League foreign minister’s committee has decided on Friday to consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization,” said a statement issued at the end of the 145th session of the Council of the Arab League in Cairo on Friday.
Bahrain’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Mubarak Sayar said there was a consensus on the decision but Lebanon and Iraq had reservations about it.
The Council has condemned “provocative statements by Iranian officials against Arab countries” and called on Tehran to stop these “hostile and provocative remarks and anti-Arab media campaigns.” The Council considered these acts as “flagrant interferences into internal affairs of these states.”
The Council said that Hezbollah, along with the Iranian revolutionary guard corps, financed and trained terrorist groups in Bahrain.
The Council demanded Iran to refrain from pursuing policies that feed sectarian disputes, and support groups that fuel these disputes in the Arabian Gulf states. It also called on Iran to stop supporting and financing armed militias and parties in the Arab countries.
The Syrian Coalition welcomed the Arab Gulf states’ designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Member of the political committee Hadi al-Bahra said that the Syrian people are looking forward to the Islamic anti-terror coalition, formed by Saudi Arabia in December 2015 and includes 34 countries in the Muslim world, to include in its targets all terrorist groups, including the foreign militias fighting on the side of the Assad regime.
Bahra added that these Iranian-backed groups were sent to Syria to aid Assad and expand Iran’s influence, thus further fomenting sectarianism and extremist ideologies.
“It is unacceptable that the international community lists ISIS as a terrorist group while ignoring other groups whose terrorist practices outweigh any other organization fighting in Syria,” Bahra stressed.
“Hezbollah’s terrorist practices and its intervention in Syria on the side of the Assad regime have further destabilized the region and fueled the sectarian strife. Hezbollah is a key partner for the Assad regime in the killing of more than 300,000 civilians in Syria.”
Bahra commended the resolve shown by the Arab Gulf countries with regard to the designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group, especially Saudi Arabia who has taken the lead to counter Iran’s sectarian and subversive project in the region. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
