Anti-Hezbollah move driven by gains against Daesh: Iraqi popular forces

The head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, says branding Lebanon’s Hezbollah as a terrorist organization by the Persian Gulf Arab states exposes their fierce campaign against groups fighting Takfiri terrorists in the region, PressTV reports.

On March 2, the six-nation [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) issued a statement labeling Lebanon’s resistance movement of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The bloc, comprising Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, claimed that Hezbollah’s moves in the region are against international values and moral and human principles.

In an exclusive interview with PressTV on Sunday, al-Mohandes said that the anti-Hezbollah move by the Persian Gulf Arab states was a reaction to recent Iraqi and Syrian army gains against Daesh terrorists.

“The states which are backing Takfiri terrorism are now mourning the demise of their plots in the region especially in the light of victories achieved in Syria and Iraq,” al-Mohandes said.

“These states and the ruling families have been sponsoring terrorism. They are sponsoring the remnants of the former Baath regime. They have established al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Daesh and have been funding and supporting these groups for decades,” he said.

The move by the six-member bloc is the latest measure against Hezbollah, which is fighting terrorists in Syria.

In a televised speech on Sunday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, stressed that Hezbollah did not wait for any orders to initiate its anti-terror campaign in Syria. He also underlined the assistance provided by the resistance group to the Iraqi government in its fight against Daesh.

The Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control some parts of Iraq and Syria.

The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians in areas under their control.

The Iraqi army, along with the Popular Mobilization Units, is engaged in joint military operations to win back militant-held regions.

The Syrian forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, have also made major advances against Takfiri militants across the country.

The [P]GCC decision to blacklist Hezbollah has been met with widespread opposition and criticism.

Algeria refused to classify the movement as a terrorist organization. Palestinian resistance movement, Islamic Jihad, also praised Hezbollah as a resistance movement, which has a history in the struggle against the Zionist entity as well as in supporting the Palestinian cause. Iran, Syria and Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement have also slammed the move by the [P]GCC.

In 2000 and 2006, when Israel launched two wars on Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters gave befitting responses to the Tel Aviv regime’s acts of aggression, forcing the Israeli military to retreat without achieving any of its objectives.