by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Six-member Gulf Cooperation Council brands Hezbollah a terrorist organization, opening up possibility of further sanctions against the group • "Hezbollah is vanguard of resistance against Zionist regime," says Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister.
Shiite and Sunni clerics
listen to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as he speaks via video link
during ceremony to honer fallen Hezbollah leaders, Feb. 16, 2016
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Photo credit: AP  |
Iran accused Gulf Arab neighbors on Thursday
of jeopardizing Lebanon's stability by blacklisting Hezbollah, state
television said, a move likely to stoke tensions in the regional power
rivalry between Tehran and Riyadh.
The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council
branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization on Wednesday, opening up the
possibility of further sanctions against the group that wields influence
in Lebanon and fights in Syria.
GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani
said the bloc decided to implement the terrorist designation because of
hostile acts by Iran-backed Hezbollah within its member states.
The decision reflects rising tensions between
Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran, Hezbollah's patron.
The GCC ruling brings Gulf states in line with the U.S., which also
considers Hezbollah a terrorist group.
Leading Sunni power Saudi Arabia and Shiite
Iran compete for influence across the region and back different factions
in sectarian-driven Lebanon and in Syria's civil war.
"Lebanon's Hezbollah is the vanguard of
resistance against the Zionist regime [Israel] and Iran is proud of the
group, which is also the champion of the fight against terrorism in the
Middle East," Iranian state TV quoted deputy Foreign Minister Hossein
Amirabdollahian as saying.
"Calling Hezbollah a terrorist group ... will
harm the unity and security of Lebanon," Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nasrallah said on Tuesday.
The GCC did not specify on Wednesday what
action might be taken against Hezbollah. But last week Saudi Arabia, the
biggest power in the GCC, said it had blacklisted four companies and
three Lebanese men for having links to the group.
In 2013, the Sunni-dominated GCC --
representing Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman
and Qatar -- imposed sanctions on Hezbollah after it entered Syria's war
in support of President Bashar Assad.
Relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia
have been plunged into crisis since Riyadh halted $3 billion in aid to
the Lebanese army -- a response to the Beirut government's failure to
condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.
In January, Riyadh led several Arab countries in cutting
diplomatic ties with Tehran after demonstrators burned its embassy and a
consulate in protest against the execution of a prominent dissident
Shiite cleric by Riyadh.
News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=32201
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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