Baghdad: The Arab League decided to cancel the description of Hezbollah (Lebanese) as a ‘terrorist organization,’ according to what Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki announced today, Saturday, to the Egyptian Cairo News Channel.
Zaki said, ‘The Arab League no longer calls (Lebanese) Hezbollah a terrorist organization,’ noting that the Arab League had previously described Hezbollah as a ‘terrorist organization,’ and communication with it had been cut off based on the League’s decisions.
He pointed out that the member states of the League (he did not name them) agreed that this formula (Hezbollah is a terrorist organization) will no longer be used, ‘which opens the way for us to communicate,’ referring to a meeting that took place with Hezbollah, without revealing details about that agreement.
He explained that “the Arab League does not have terrorist lists, and no efforts are being made to classify entities in this direction.”
On March 11, 2016, the League of Arab States described
Hezbollah as a ‘terrorist organization,’ amid Lebanese-Iraqi reservations, and demanded that it ‘stop spreading extremism and sectarianism and interfere in the internal affairs of countries and not provide any support to terrorism and terrorists in its regional environment.’
The move came days after the Gulf Cooperation Council countries classified Lebanese Hezbollah as a ‘terrorist organization’ on March 2, 2016.
Yesterday, Friday, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper revealed a visit by the Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ambassador Hossam Zaki, to Beirut and met with the head of the ‘Loyalty to the Resistance’ bloc affiliated with Hezbollah, MP Muhammad Raad. This is the first contact between the Arab League and ‘Hezbollah’ in more than From 10 years.
According to a statement by the Arab League, Zaki visited Beirut and held a number of meetings with the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, the Prime Minister of the caretaker government, Najib Mikati, and the Commander of the Army (General Jos
eph Aoun), and consultations with political and parliamentary leaders that included various components of the Lebanese political spectrum, without naming the rest of those he met.
During those meetings, they discussed the issue of “containing the ongoing escalation in southern Lebanon with Israel, since the outbreak of the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip, and ending the Lebanese presidential vacancy that has extended for more than 19 months.”
The visit and announcement from Zaki came amid the escalation of the possibility of war breaking out between Hezbollah and Israel.
Since October 8, 2023, Lebanese and Palestinian factions in Lebanon – most notably Hezbollah – have exchanged daily bombardments with the Israeli army across the ‘Blue Line’, leaving hundreds killed and wounded, most of them on the Lebanese side.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency