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. He also claimed that Saudi Arabia was directly responsible for some auto bombings in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq and the “massacres” in Yemen, AP reported, adding that Riyadh was trying to create tensions between Sunnis and Shiites across the world.
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Riyadh backs the five-year uprising in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad, while Hezbollah has intervened militarily on Assad’s behalf.
He said if Saudi Arabia had a problem with Hezbollah to take it up with the party itself, and not target Lebanon, its people, army and Hezbollah’s allies.
Around 90 Lebanese citizens have since been fired from their jobs in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports.
The decision came a day after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that Saudi Arabia had pushed Lebanon into a new phase of a political conflict by ending its military aid programme and dealing a blow to the country’s tourism industry.
The decision to label Hezbollah in all its manifestations a terrorist organization brings the GCC in line with the USA, which also blacklists the group.
And as the war in Syria drags on, regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran have sought to maintain their influence over the border in Lebanon.
For The National, a UAE-based newspaper, Josh Wood looks at what’s behind the Gulf states’ travel warnings for Lebanon and other measures. Tense relations became aggravated when Saudi Arabia executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr in January.
“We are happy with the truce and God willing it will persist and lead to a political solution”, said Nasrallah.
“We are proud of Lebanon’s Hezbollah as the vanguard of resistance against the Zionist regime and the champion of the fight against terrorism in the region”, Abdollahian told Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
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“I feel this is the real jihad”, he said, calling it “greater than the July war” – a reference to Hezbollah’s month-long conflict with Israel in 2006.
