The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took the step on Wednesday, opening up the possibility of further sanctions against Hezbollah, which wields broad political influence in Lebanon and is fighting in Syria for President Bashar Al-Assad.
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It was the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani who made the declaration.
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”.
Saudi Arabia and two other Sunni-ruled GCC states, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, subsequently warned their citizens not to travel to Lebanon.
The GCC’s decision brings it in line with the United States which has long considered Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization. We urge Riyadh to settle accounts with Hezbollah and not all the Lebanese, ” he said.
Hezbollah’s leader said on Tuesday Lebanon had been pushed into a new phase of political conflict by Saudi Arabia but was not on the brink of civil war and its government of national unity, of which Hezbollah is a part, should survive. Diplomatic ties were severed after Iranian protesters set fire to the Saudi embassy and another diplomatic mission in Iran.
Earlier in the day, the GCC declared Hizbullah a “terrorist” group, escalating tensions with the Shiite Lebanese organization that has dispatched thousands of militants to bolster the Syrian regime against rebels and jihadists seeking to topple it.
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Saudi Arabia accuses Shia Hezbollah – Lebanon’s most powerful military force – of serving as a proxy for Iran and of hijacking Lebanese policy-making. Israel and the GCC are both increasingly concerned about Iran’s expanding regional influence, and last June, Israel and Saudi Arabia acknowledged that they have been engaged in secret, high-level talks aimed at thwarting Iran’s regional ambitions.
