The six-state Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) designated Wednesday Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah a “terrorist organization”.
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Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf States have gone so far as to warn their citizens against traveling to Lebanon, calling on their nationals living in the country to leave.
The council took the move against Hezbollah “because of hostile actions by the militia, which recruits young people for terrorist acts”, GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement.
The withdrawal of Saudi Arabia’s financial aid has sparked a war of words between opponents and supporters of Hezbollah in Lebanon.(ALSO READ:Hezbollah says Lebanese militant killed in Syria airstrike).
Gulf nations have taken a series of measures against Hezbollah since Saudi Arabia last month halted a $3 billion programme funding French military supplies to Beirut.
The decision to label Hezbollah a terrorist outfit came one day after a speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that Saudi Arabia had pushed Lebanon into a new phase of political conflict by announcing it was suspending an aid package to the Lebanese army.
He particularly alluded to Lebanon’s refusal to join the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in condemning attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in January. “We urge Riyadh to settle accounts with Hezbollah and not all the Lebanese”, Nasrallah said, according to AP. Riyadh last week blacklisted four companies and three Lebanese men for having links to Hezbollah. The two are on opposing sides in conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
“You need to fight this sort of organisation”, he said.
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Yemen’s Gulf-backed government has accused Hezbollah of training and fighting alongside Houthi forces in that country’s war and of planning attacks in Saudi Arabia.
