Tunisia Nobel laureate condemns blacklisting of Hezbollah

Tunisian labor union says condemnation part of an offensive that seeks to 'divide the Arab world'

By AFP 3 March 2016, 8:50 pm
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (AP/Hussein Malla)

A member of Tunisia’s Nobel Peace Prize winning quartet on Thursday condemned the decision of Arab states in the Gulf to blacklist Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah as a “terrorist” organization.

The Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), in a statement, said the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah was a “symbol of the (Lebanese) national struggle” against Israel.

Wednesday’s move against Hezbollah by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), led by Saudi Arabia, formed part of “an offensive by foreign and other regional forces to divide the Arab world and destroy its forces,” UGTT said.

The Sunni monarchies of the Gulf, at a time of deteriorating ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, “decided to consider the militias (of Hezbollah) a terrorist organization,” GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani said.

Houcine Abassi, secretary general of the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), right, is congratulated by unidentified union members in his office at the headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, Friday, Oct. 9, 2015. Abassi is one of the four members of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet to be awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. (AP Photo)

Hezbollah was targeted because of “hostile actions of the militia who recruit the young people” of the Gulf, he said.

Zayani cited “their terrorist acts and incitement in Syria, Yemen and in Iraq,” which he said were threatening Arab security.

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