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News from The Cradle, June 30, 2024
The Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League announced on 29 June that the body had canceled its designation of Lebanon’s resistance movement, Hezbollah, as a terrorist organization.
“In previous Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions, leading to the severing of communication-based on these decisions,” Hossam Zaki said in a statement televised live on Egypt’s Al-Qahera news channel.
“The member states of the League agreed that the label of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” he added.
“The designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization no longer applies,” Zaki went on to say. “The Arab League does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Friday that Zaki visited Beirut and met with the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Muhammad Raad, marking the first contact between the league and Lebanon’s resistance in over ten years.
An Arab League statement on 28 June said that Zaki met with other Lebanese officials, discussing de-escalation on the country’s southern border, as well as Lebanon’s presidential vacuum.
The Arab League designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in March 2016, shortly after GCC countries labeled it as such.
At the time, the league called on the resistance group to “cease promoting extremism and sectarianism, refrain from meddling in the internal affairs of countries, and withhold any support for terrorism and terrorists in the region.”
The decision came three years after Hezbollah entered the war in Syria to help government troops battle extremist groups, which also posed a significant threat to Lebanon and its security. The years that followed Hezbollah’s entry into the Syrian conflict saw a large-scale propaganda campaign against the group, led namely by western and Gulf media.
Zaki’s announcement comes as Hezbollah has been launching daily operations against Israeli border sites in support of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. The attacks have emptied over 40 settlements and have decimated the economy, business, education, and daily life across Israel’s north.
Tel Aviv has recently intensified threats against Lebanon over Hezbollah’s operations, and said that battle plans have been approved for expanding its already brutal campaign of airstrikes on south Lebanon into a wider-scale operation.
Hezbollah has vowed not to stop its operations until the war in Gaza is brought to an end, saying it will fight “without limits, rules, or restraints” if Israel waged a broader war against Lebanon.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week said Israel is “not looking for war” and that a diplomatic solution was “preferable.”
