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| In jab at Iran, Gulf Arab states declare Hezbollah a terrorist group | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| BEIRUT — A Saudi-dominated political bloc on Wednesday formally designated Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia a terrorist organization, a move that signals dangerously escalating tensions between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. | BEIRUT — A Saudi-dominated political bloc on Wednesday formally designated Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia a terrorist organization, a move that signals dangerously escalating tensions between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. |
| The Gulf Cooperation Council’s decision against the Iranian-allied group comes two weeks after Saudi Arabia canceled a $4 billion aid package for strengthening Lebanese security services. | |
| The move was rooted anger over the Hezbollah’s dominance of Lebanese security and political institutions, and was quickly followed by Saudi Arabia and other GCC member states advising their citizens to leave Lebanon. | |
| The growing rifts between Saudi Arabia and Iran have increasingly rattled Lebanon, where both nations have until recently managed to restrain their destructive rivalry despite their competing influence. Saudi Arabia and Iran also are on opposing sides in the neighboring civil war in neighboring Syria, where fighting has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions. | |
| [Iran’s president tries to cool tensions with Riyadh] | |
| A blistering statement posted on the GCC website accused Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite Muslim movement, of “hostile acts” in the six states in the Sunni bloc: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. | |
| The statement, citing GCC Secretary General Rashid al-Zayani, accused the group of recruitment to carry out terrorist attacks, as well as smuggling of weapons and explosives, “in flagrant violation of its sovereignty, security and stability.” | |
| All Hezbollah leaders and affiliated factions would fall under the new terrorism designation, said the statement, which also claims the group is responsible for “terror and incitement” in Yemen and Iraq. | |
| There was no immediate response from Hezbollah. | |
| Saudi Arabia and other allied nations broke ties with Iran in January. The fallout came after mobs stormed Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in protest over Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric accused of anti-state crimes. | Saudi Arabia and other allied nations broke ties with Iran in January. The fallout came after mobs stormed Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in protest over Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric accused of anti-state crimes. |
| [5 facts to make sense of Saudi-Iran rifts] | |
| Iran and Saudi Arabia have for years jostled for influence across the region. | |
| Their rivalry has badly strained relations between Sunnis and Shiites the world over, and it has fueled devastating conflicts beyond Syria. In Yemen, a Saudi-led military coalition intervened with ground and air assaults last year against Iranian-aligned rebels. | |
| Wednesday’s announcement followed a provocative speech a day earlier by Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah. In that speech, he had barbed remarks for Saudi Arabia, its role in region and its recent decision to halt military and security aid to Lebanon. | |
| The decision to cut off aid and other Saudi moves, Nasrallah said, signals that the “we have entered a new phase of political and media struggle which Saudi Arabia has escalated.” | |
| But the Hezbollah leader stepped back from calling for confrontation, saying there would be no repeat of intense street fighting in 2008. That surge of unrest involved the group and Saudi-backed political forces fighting what locals describe as a brief civil war. | |
| Lebanon fought a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. | |
| Militants from Iran and Hezbollah are battling inside Syria to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against a rebellion that is supported with money and weapons from Saudi Arabia and others. | |
| Hezbollah intervened in Syria unilaterally, angering many Lebanese, who say the move has dragged Lebanon deeper into the conflict. | |
| Despite the friction, the country has managed to weather immense pressures. | |
| More than a million Syrians have taken refugee in the tiny country of 1.4 million people. Gridlock in the government — partly a result of differences over the Syrian war — have prevented politicians from selecting a president for over two years and hampered other issues, such as trash-collecting services in the capital, Beirut. | |
| But the recent surge in Saudi-Iranian tensions threatens broader unrest. | |
| Over the weekend, Hezbollah supporters staged angry demonstrations after a Saudi-owned pan-Arab satellite television station aired a comedy segment poking fun of Nasrallah. That portrayed him as a stooge of Iran, sparking demonstrations that included people blocking roads and setting tires on fire. | |
| Hezbollah has come under pressures and denunciations for decades by the United States and its allies over the group’s anti-Israel campaigns, including rocket barrages across the border. Hezbollah and Israel fought a brief war in 2006, but Israeli forces failed to dislodge the militants from bases in southern Lebanon. | |
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