Hezbollah is on the Terror List…. A vain action

Today the Lebanese people were awaiting the European Union’s decision to add Hezbollah to the list of terrorism organizations, due to the fact that the decision has negative results on Lebanon in general, and despite that all the Lebanese people were repeating the words said by Sayyid Nasrallah: “Soak your terror list and drink its water”. 

Islam Times website interviewed a number of people in the field to know their position and comments after the decision that has been taken. Some of them said: “Those who think that this superficial depiction would affect Hezbollah and its people they are mistaken. We have the honor to be a terrorist army being led by Sayyed Nasrallah”.

Whereas, some of them announced: “Those who do not know the resistance, we tell them that it is bigger than being isolated, it is stronger that being humiliated, it has pride and no one can disgrace its dignity, and that it has honor and no one can humiliate its achievements and the dignity of its Mujahidin. Hezbollah can never be threatened and/or frightened”.

Yet, what is the politicians’ viewpoint on this?

The Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed “The strong message” as he described it that has been sent by the European Union when it added Hezbollah to the European list of terrorism organizations. 

Kerry said: “Through this procedure, which has been undertaken today, the European Union sends a strong message to Hezbollah’s military wing stating that it is no longer allowed to roam without being punished, and that what is being carried out by it would have repercussions”.

Kerry called other governments to take the same steps as that of the European Union and to take procedures against the Lebanese Shiite Organization”.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Binjamin Netanhayu, welcomed the European Union’s decision to add Hezbolah’s military wing to the list of terrorism organizations”, and said that Israel has spared no effort to convince the European countries to do so.

Netanyahu added that “The State of Israel has spared no effort to explain for the countries of the European Union that Hezbollah is the terrorist body of the Iranian regime. As for Israel, Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization without differentiating between its wings”. The Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon considered that “Tightening the ring around Hezbollah’s neck would increase the intelligence cooperation between countries against the said Party and would boost the fighting against it”.

From the Lebanese side the Secretariat of Information in the Arab Tawhid Party denounced in a statement today “The decision taken by the Foreign Ministers of the European Union to put Hezbollah’s military wing on the terror list”, noting that Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization as claimed by those countries, but it is a resistance movement that defended the pride and dignity of man in the face of the Israeli aggression”.

The statement added: “We expect the countries of the European Union to play its historical role and to stand by the Lebanese people and to support their national establishments and at the forefront the Army Foundation to address unabated any takfiri attempts to undermine the morale of this foundation that is guaranteeing the safety of the land. However, we saw a number of the European Union countries declaring in every occasion and event their absolute support for the terrorist extremist groups, which beseech crime, terrorism, and assassinations because of which thousands of Syrian civilians have been killed, and this poses a threat to all mankind”.

The statement denounced “This decision that came as if obeying to the American will”, and called “The people of the nation to stand alongside Hezbollah in its legitimate resistance and continuous efforts to liberate the land, to restore the holy sites, and to establish the Palestinian State on the entire national territory”.

The member of the General Secretariat of the 14 March forces, Nawfal Daou, considered that “The European Union’s decision to add Hezbollah to the Terror list is what we have been warning of since a long period of time, and today we are facing the outlawed”, noting that Hezbollah’s policy is based on the military intervention and on the use of arms to achieve political goals and objectives in Lebanon, in Syria, and/or in a number of the Gulf countries, in Africa, in Europe, in Latin America, or in other countries, and all this led to what we are facing today”.   

Daou stressed that “The risk in this decision is the fact that this would not be reflected negatively on the Party itself only but also would affect the Lebanese reality in general. The required end result at this stage needs a courageous decision by the Party to go back to the logic of the Sate in Lebanon”. He added that “If the Party decided to return to the State to implement the Taif Agreement and the 1559 resolution and to renounce violence and its language in dealing politically with the Lebanese people and with the Arab countries and with both the Arab and international legitimacies, then the Lebanese people and government will embrace Hezbollah and we will head towards those two legitimacies to say that it is not permissible to put Hezbollah on the Terror list because it is applying the logic of the State that is the only one capable of discussing the issue of arms as well as of taking security and military decisions on its land. Therefore, the State oversees all the Lebanese people and no one has the right to deal with this people “independently”.

Hezbollah’s response to the decision came as follows:

Ahead of the decision taken by the European Union to add Hezbollah to the Terror list, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah said during the anniversary of the “Victory of Resistance” on 25 May: “Soak your list of terrorism organizations and drink its water”.

The Reuters news agency has cited earlier in the day European diplomats as saying that “The EU Foreign Ministers agree to add Hezbollah to the Terror list”, and thus the European Union will impose sanctions on the leaders of Hezbollah.

The listing’s drawbacks

At the political level, the majority of the parties and forces will not accept Hezbollah as a partner in the next government, so as not to be boycotted by the influential international gatherings, such as the European Union, which could push the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries to follow its steps. Thus, this will lead to the continuation of the existing governmental vacuum, and will lead to a vacuum at the level of the presidency in the summer of 2014, if Hezbollah insisted on its conditions.   

At the security level, observers fear that the European decision would have repercussions on the security situation, especially in light of the presence of the emergency forces (UNIFEL) in Southern Lebanon”.

At the financial level, if the European Union put Hezbollah on the Terror list, then this would lead to imposing sanctions on it as the United States did previously and this means putting Lebanon under the pressure of these sanctions. The financial, commercial, and cash motion with the European Union would be highly controlled, and the Lebanese banking sector has previously suffered from the results of adding Hezbollah to the American Terrorism list, when the Canadian-Lebanese Bank was closed, and other banks suffered great difficulties because of the threat of punitive measures.

As a result, the pace of transfers to the banks has declined as well as the deposits, which are the backbone of the economy of Lebanon. In case the countries of the European Union decided to take such similar action, this will lead to shaking confidence in the Lebanese financial and economic system.

Regarding the trade exchange, Lebanon’s relationship with the two most prominent partners, France and Italy, will suffer greatly. 

There is a serious concern that this European decision would encourage other international and regional groupings to take similar steps. Merely a Gulf warning has had negative results on both the economy and tourism in Lebanon, so how about if the Gulf Cooperation Council adopted punitive measures against Lebanon, noting that this is unlikely to happen because the Gulf countries will not deliberately harm Lebanon.

Presently, the European Union listed Hezbollah on the Terror list, as if the resistance fighters are spending all their time shopping between Paris and London during summer vacations! The Party is bearing the provocations drawing on the fact that it is totally committed to protect stability, civil peace, national and Islamic unity, and the safety of the land. The Party will not allow any of the American tools in Lebanon to blackmail its position, but it would remain steady no matter how much they bet on sedition, or try to carry out attacks in the Suburb, in Bekaa, and in others Lebanese areas.