Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Unlike the EU-Gulf States to Sanction All of Hezbollah

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council has decided that its sanctions against the Lebanese terror organization will not distinguish between its military and political wings.
A group of Persian Gulf states has begun blacklisting Hezbollah, carrying out a decision made in early June to implement sanctions against the Lebanese terrorist organization. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – has decided to sanction all of Hezbollah, without distinction between the group’s military and political wings.
The GCC decision comes against the backdrop of Hezbollah’s ongoing participation in the Syrian civil war, fighting on behalf of the Assad regime. A report in Al Ahram (link in Arabic) quoted terrorism expert Fayez Al Nashwan, who noted that the GCC made the decision as a response to Hezbollah’s direct intervention in Syria.

Last week, the European Union voted to label the military wing of Hezbollah a “terrorist organization,” but it did not give the organization’s political wing the same designation. Afterwards, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, ridiculed the idea of a distinction between the military and political wings of Hezbollah, joking that Lebanon’s next government should include a member of Hezbollah’s “military wing.”

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