UK to ban Lebanon’s Hezbollah as terrorist group, Israel urges EU to follow move

25 Feb, 2019 12:57 / Updated 5 years ago

Britain said on Monday that it plans to ban all wings of Hezbollah due to its “destabilizing influence” in the Middle East, classing the Lebanese Islamist movement as a terrorist organization. London had already proscribed Hezbollah’s external security unit and its military wing in 2001 and 2008 respectively, but now wants to outlaw its political arm too. “Hezbollah is continuing in its attempts to destabilize the fragile situation in the Middle East – and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party,” Home Secretary Sajid Javid said. Israel lauded Britain’s decision to ban Hezbollah and urged the EU to class the Shiite militia and political movement in its entirety as a terrorist organization, Reuters reports.