The Situation

Members of the Arab League have collectively agreed to no longer label Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.

“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organisation, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, stated on Saturday, 29 June.

“The League’s member states concurred that the labelling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the Arab League “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”

Assessment

Guest analysis by Avi Melamed, a regional analyst and former Israeli intelligence officer.

The Arab League’s departure from considering Hezbollah a terrorist organisation announced this weekend by Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki during his visit to Lebanon, should be viewed through the context of the Arab League trying to dialogue directly with Iran’s proxies, specifically Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, hoping that the theory of appeasement will result in de-escalation from both. 

The move was met with significant backlash online, including from the people of Lebanon, who argue they are being held hostage by Hezbollah’s ever-escalating exchange of fire with Israel, and the threatened full-scale conflict both Hezbollah and Israel have threatened. 

Iran designed its network of proxies as hostage-takers. They will extract as large a sum as possible and the current step by the Arab League won’t likely make an impact, most certainly not for Zaki’s home country, Egypt, which continues to suffer major economic losses from the Houthi harassment of commercial through the Red Sea.

Image Credit: Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons