GULF ARAB STATES DESIGNATE HEZBOLLAH A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION:

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization on Wed. 2 March 2016, ratcheting up pressure on the Iran-allied group that wields influence in Lebanon and plays a key role in the Syrian crisis. It was the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani who made the declaration. "Hezbollah’s incitement and terrorist acts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq are contrary to morality and human values.” On Thurs. 3 March, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed Tehran's great outrage that Gulf states the day before formally declared Iran's Lebanese proxy Hezbollah a terrorist organization. "The terrorism tag for Hezbollah is a new mistake which doesn’t benefit the regional stability and security," he said as quoted by media sources. Amir-Abdollahian defended Hezbollah by saying most of its terrorism is directed against Israel, and he added that it is fighting "terrorism" in the region, in a reference to how it is propping up Bashar al-Assad's regime against opposition forces in Syria on Iran's orders. "We are proud of Lebanon's Hezbollah as the vanguard of resistance against the Zionist regime [Israel] and the champion of the fight against terrorism in the region," he said. (J. Post/Ynet/INN)