BICOM

The 21-member Arab League has voted in favour of classifying Lebanon-based Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. The decision comes just days after the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprising Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman took the same step.

The Arab League decision took place at a meeting of its foreign ministers in Egypt’s capital Cairo. The only member states to vote against the decision were Lebanon and Iraq. During the debate, Saudi Arabia’s delegation walked out after Iraq’s Foreign Minister called Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah an “Arab hero.”

The decisions of both the Arab League and GCC come within the context of growing antipathy between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, with both countries vying for regional influence and supremacy. Hezbollah is fighting alongside President Assad’s troops in Syria, while its staunch ally Iran also backs rebel groups in Yemen. The Arab League and GCC’s recognition of Hezbollah as a terror group brings them into line with United States policy and that of the European Union which regards Hezbollah’s military wing as a terror group.

Hezbollah is the de facto ruler of southern Lebanon, where it possesses a large military arsenal, including an estimated 100,000 rockets aimed at Israel. Hezbollah has also planned and launched attacks on Israeli citizens across the world, most brutally a bus bomb in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas which killed five Israeli tourists in 2012.

Nonetheless, two of the three factions comprising the Joint Arab List in Israel’s Knesset yesterday condemned the Arab League decision, as they did the GCC vote last week. Both Balad and Hadash, which is headed by Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh MK, last week caused uproar across Israel’s political spectrum, arguing that the GCC decision serves Israel’s interests. Raja Zaatreh, a member of the Hadash Political Bureau described Hezbollah as an “opposition movement” and said that the Arab League is a “pawn” of Gulf states which “serve the policy interests of the United States.”