Argentine terror tag for Hizbollah welcomed

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom welcomed the decision of the Argentine Republic to designate Hizbollah as terrorist organisation and freeze its members’ assets on its territory. The Ministry highlighted the decision as a new step towards the international community’s recognition of the danger of this terrorist group to international peace and security. The Ministry expressed appreciation of the efforts of the friendly Republic of Argentina to combat terrorism.

It called for concerted regional and international efforts to eradicate all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism and taking the necessary measures to deter its sponsors.  Recently, the US has imposed sanctions on two Hizbollah members of the Lebanese parliament accused of being Iranian proxies, marking the first time Washington has targeted sitting MPs.

The US Treasury said it would freeze the assets of Muhammad Ra’d and Amin Sherri, both Hizbollah MPs, after accusing them of “leveraging their privileged positions to...do Iran’s bidding”. A third high-ranking Hizbollah security official, Wafiq Safa, was sanctioned as part of the same package. Mr Safa is the head of Hizbollah’s security apparatus. “This is a new kind of action because it is against Hizbollah MPs,” said a senior US administration official, who added that Hizbollah was “embedded in the Lebanese political fabric”.

“There is no distinction between Hizbollah’s political and military wings, both of which take orders from Iran,” the official said. The US State Department has already designated Jawad Nasrallah, son of Lebanon’s Iranbacked Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a terrorist and accused him of carrying out attacks against Israel in the West Bank.

The department also blacklisted Al Mujahidin Brigades (AMB), which it said had links to Hizbollah and had plotted a number of attacks against Israeli targets from a base in the Palestinian Territories. “The designations seek to deny Nasrallah and AMB the resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks,” the State Department had said in a statement. It said the actions denied Nasrallah and AMB access to the US financial system.