Addressing Hizbollah’s activities in Central, South America, the US Secretary of State praised Colombia, Honduras, and Guatemala for designating the Iran-backed Hizbollah as a terrorist organization.
By Elad Benari
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday praised Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala which designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
In a post on Twitter, Pompeo wrote that Hezbollah “and other transnational terrorist groups remain active in the region. The US continues to rally international support to counter these threats.”
The three countries designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in the context of the regional anti-terrorism conference currently being held in the Colombian capital of Bogota.
Just last week, Britain’s finance ministry added the entire Hezbollah organization to its list of terrorist groups subject to asset freezing, after previously having only blacklisted the group’s military wing and not its political arm.
Pompeo on Saturday urged all countries to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
“On this five-year anniversary of prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death, we remember the 1994 AMIA Jewish center attack in Buenos Aires and his tireless efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. We call on all nations to designate Hezbollah as the terrorist organization it is,” wrote Pompeo, in a reference to the Jewish attorney who died two days after accusing former Argentine president Cristina Kirchner of a cover up in the 1994 bombing, which is attributed to Hezbollah.
We applaud the announcements of Colombia, Honduras, and Guatemala to designate #Iran-backed #Hizballah a terrorist organization. It and other transnational terrorist groups remain active in the region. The U.S. continues to rally international support to counter these threats.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 20, 2020
In 2013, the European Union blacklisted Hezbollah’s “military wing” as a terrorist organization, while failing to blacklist the group’s political arm.
The German Parliament recently approved a non-binding resolution calling on the German government to “decree an activity ban against Hezbollah in order not to tolerate any activity in Germany by representatives of the organization, which opposes the principle of international understanding.”
Germany’s Minister of State Niels Annen said in August that his country will not follow Britain’s lead and ban Hezbollah’s political arm, arguing that the Shiite Muslim organization remained a relevant factor in Lebanese society.
View original Arutz Sheva publication at:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/274854
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