Javid ‘will proscribe Hezbollah’
SAJID JAVID is a “very different” Home Secretary to his predecessor and will move to take steps to proscribe Hezbollah later this year, a senior Conservative source has claimed.
The JC understands Mr Javid vowed to take “decisive action” over the Iranianbacked group ahead of last weekend’s Al Quds Day march in London — at which Hezbollah flags were again flown.
Hezbollah’s military wing was banned as a terror group in Britain in 2008, but a legal loophole relating to its political arm — which is not proscribed — allows supporters to justify flying the flags at events such as last Sunday’s rally.
The Home Office has the power to ban the political wing and ensure the group is proscribed in its entirety.
A Tory source told the JC: “Sajid is a very different beast to the Home Secretary he has just replaced.
“Amber Rudd spoke repeatedly about taking action over Hezbollah — but for whatever reason was not able to get around to doing anything.
“Sajid has vowed to take decisive action on the matter. He will make this very clear over the forthcoming weeks.”
A letter sent by Joan Ryan MP, chair of Labour Friends of Israel, to Mr Javid after the rally said she was “appalled that the government should once again have allowed this Iranian-inspired hate fest to take place on the streets of London”.
Ms Ryan added: “I fail to understand why the Home Office has not heeded the repeated warnings raised by LFI MPs and the Mayor of London over the past year.”
Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate last week, Phillip Hollobone, Conservative MP for Kettering, said: “Very distinguished international bodies have banned Hezbollah outright, they’ve proscribed it as a terrorist organisation… frankly I think we should join them.
“Hezbollah is an Iranian creation that sits as the crown jewel in Iran’s regional strategy of Jihadi revolutionary warfare. It is in short the most powerful armed non-state actor in the world. This is an organisation which potentially is more lethal than Isis, and it is all backed and funded by Iran.”
A Home Office spokesperson refused to comment on whether Mr Javid planned to proscribe Hezbollah in full.
Sajid is a very different beast to Rudd’