{"id":23854,"date":"2016-03-12T01:23:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T01:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/arab-league-labels-hezbollah-a-terrorist-group\/"},"modified":"2016-03-12T01:22:53","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T01:22:53","slug":"arab-league-labels-hezbollah-a-terrorist-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/arab-league-labels-hezbollah-a-terrorist-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab League labels Hezbollah a ‘terrorist’ group"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The move, which was not backed by Lebanon and Iraq, comes after the Gulf Cooperation Council adopted the same stance.}<\/p>\n

The Arab League has declared Lebanese movement Hezbollah a “terrorist” group, only days after the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) adopted the same stance.<\/p>\n

The move came during an Arab League foreign ministers’ meeting at the organisation’s headquarters in Egypt’s capital Cairo on Friday.<\/p>\n

Nearly all 22 Arab League members supported the decision, except Lebanon and Iraq which expressed “reservations”, the bloc said in a statement read out at a news conference by Bahraini diplomat Wahid Mubarak Sayar.<\/p>\n

“The resolution of the League’s council [of foreign ministers] includes the designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah, a Shia political organisation with an armed wing, fights in neighbouring Syria to support the government of President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n

Explaining Lebanon’s position, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said in a Twitter message: “We voiced reservations because the resolution was not in line with the Arab anti-terror treaty … Hezbollah enjoys wide representation in Lebanon and it is a main component in the country.”<\/p>\n

Earlier, the Saudi delegation briefly withdrew from discussions to protest against Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s refusal to label Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Nasrallah’s remarks<\/p>\n

The decision comes a day after Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leadar, accused Saudi Arabia of pressuring Lebanon to silence his group. <\/p>\n

“Saudi Arabia is angry with Hezbollah since it is daring to say what only a few others dare to say against its royal family,” he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Arab League and the six-member GCC have been ramping up pressure on Hezbollah, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, with whom relations have worsened this year.<\/p>\n

The two nations are on opposing sides in conflicts in Syria and Yemen.<\/p>\n

In late February, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain urged their citizens to leave Lebanon or avoid travelling there.<\/p>\n

The travel warning came after cut $4bn in aid to Lebanese security forces in response to “hostile” positions linked to Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

The US, Canada and Australia have also listed Hezbollah as a “terrorist” group. The EU has blacklisted its military wing.<\/p>\n

\"Hezbollah<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The move, which was not backed by Lebanon and Iraq, comes after the Gulf Cooperation Council adopted the same stance.} The Arab League has declared Lebanese movement Hezbollah a “terrorist” group, only days after the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) adopted the same stance. The move came during an Arab League foreign ministers’ meeting at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23854"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23854"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}