AUSTRALIA DESIGNATES ALL OF HEZBOLLAH AS TERRORIST GROUP

▶ Authorities expand ban on Lebanese organisation that ‘continues to threaten extremist attacks’

Australia has designated Lebanese group Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, extending a ban on armed units to the entire organisation.

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the Iran-backed group “continues to threaten terrorist attacks and provide support to terrorist organisations” and posed a threat to the country.

Hezbollah has been designated as a terrorist group by countries in the West, although some have been reluctant to include its political wing.

Hezbollah refused to disarm when Lebanon’s civil war ended in 1990.

The group has been accused of fuelling the civil war in Syria by sending thousands of fighters across the border to support President Bashar Al Assad’s regime.

Hezbollah has also been accused of sending experts to train and organise militant groups in Iraq and Yemen.

In 2006, Hezbollah fought a 34-day conflict against Israel that caused the destruction of infrastructure.

More than 1,000 people died in Lebanon, mostly civilians, with more than 100 killed in Israel, including 46 civilians.

Hezbollah has been linked to the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 and the group has been accused of blocking investigations into the deadly port explosion in Beirut last year.

It has had ministers in the country’s cross-party coalition Cabinets since 2005 and its Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc currently holds 12 of the 128 seats in Parliament.

Australia had a policy of treating the political and military arms of Hezbollah separately since 2003, when it designated its External Security Organisation as a terrorist group.

The ESO is part of the movement’s military wing and is chiefly focused on overseas operations.

Membership of the organisation or providing funding for it will now be proscribed in Australia, which has a large Lebanese community.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett welcomed the move.

“Hezbollah is an Iranianbacked terror organisation in Lebanon responsible for countless attacks in Israel and around the world,” he said on Twitter. No reason was given for the timing of the announcement, which comes as Lebanon faces various political and economic crises.

About 80 per cent of the population is estimated to be living below the poverty line. Elections are scheduled for March and there is growing public anger about nepotism and corruption among the ruling class.

The move may provide a boost to Australia’s conservative government domestically before the country holds its own elections next year.

Matthew Levitt, a former US counter-terrorism financing official who works at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the designation of every branch of Hezbollah was “long overdue”.

In June, he told the Australian Parliament that the designation of armed units was insufficient.

“Hezbollah is structured and operates as a singular organisation,” he said.

“In recent years a list of Hezbollah terrorist plots and illicit financial schemes have involved Australian citizens and/ or activities on Australian soil.”

Authorities also added farright extremist group The Base to its list of terrorist organisations.

“They are a violent, racist neo-Nazi group known by security agencies to be planning and preparing terrorist attacks,” Ms Andrews said.

The Base, which was founded in the US, became only the second far-right group to be designated as a terrorist organisation in Australia after the UK-based Sonnenkrieg Division was listed in August.

Authorities will examine the membership of The Base and “we will take action once they are fully listed under the criminal code”, Ms Andrews said.