Canberra- Australia on Wednesday listed Hezbollah in its entirety as a “terrorist organization”, extending a current ban on its military wing to include the entire movement.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said that Hezbollah “continues to threaten terrorist attacks and provide support to terrorist organizations”, posing a “real” and “credible” threat to Australia, according to AFP.
Membership in the entire organization, as well as funding for it, will now be prohibited in Australia, which has a large Lebanese community.
No reason was given for the timing of Australia’s decision, which comes as Lebanon suffers from deep political and economic crises.
Simultaneously, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett thanked his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison for the move, addressing him as a “friend”.
A number of Western countries, affiliated with the United States, have designated Hezbollah as a “terrorist organization” in its military and political wings, while other countries have only included its military wing on the list and kept its political wing outside the framework of targeted sanctions.
Last year, US lawmakers made a call to the European Union to designate all of Hezbollah as a “terrorist organization” and ban its activities on the continent.
In a similar move, Germany earlier designated Hezbollah a “terrorist organization” and banned its activity on its soil.
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