[P]GCC decision on Hezbollah in line with Israeli agenda: Syria

The Syrian government says the move by the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) in declaring the Hezbollah resistance movement a “terrorist group” is in line with the Israeli regime’s agenda.

“In a step that is in line with Israeli policy, the [P]GCC issued a decision classifying Hezbollah a terrorist organization because it is confronting the Zionist project in the region and the Israeli enemy through its great sacrifices which have resonated across the Arab and Muslim nations,” a Syrian Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Syria’s official SANA agency.

The official added that the decision reflected the Saudi Arabia’s confusion and was an attempt to hijack the will of people in the Persian Gulf states, who are against normalization of relations with Israel and establishing mutual ties with the occupying regime.

The resistance group, which is fighting against Israeli occupation of Palestine and Takfiri terrorist groups, including Daesh and the Nusra Front, in Syria, has angered some countries in the Persian Gulf, mainly Saudi Arabia, the official went on to say.

The official also affirmed that Syria will always consider Hezbollah as a resistance movement against the Israeli regime and terrorism and that [P]GCC’s decision further unmasked the scope of conspiracy against Palestine, Syria, and the resistance.

Meanwhile, the Houthi Ansarullah movement in Yemen, in a statement, denounced the [P]GCC’s decision and called it “a free service to the Israeli enemy regime.” It also expressed the Yemeni people’s gratitude to what Hezbollah has done in fight against the Israeli occupation in Palestine and the stance it adopted against Saudis’ deadly war in Yemen.

Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, recently slammed the Arab world’s silence in the face of Riyadh’s aggression on Yemen, where over 8,000 people have lost their lives since the war began in late March last year.

On Wednesday, the six-nation Persian Gulf Cooperation Council officially added Hezbollah and all its affiliated groups to its so-called list of “terrorist” organizations.

The bloc, comprised of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, however, did not provide any evidence for its allegations.

This comes as the first three monarchies themselves stand accused of supporting extremists and terrorists in the region.