Hezbollah: A “terrorist organization”? Not all Arabs agree

Following the decision of the Council for the Arab States of the Gulf to label Hezbollah (a Shiite Islamist military and political Lebanese group) as a terrorist organization, EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo tries to give a definition of the word “terrorism” and argues that the Council’s decision is primarily a political one. This decision can be mainly brought back to the fact that its member states are also part of the Sunni anti-terrorism coalition and are very worried of what is happening in Yemen, where the Shiite militia is gaining more and more control of the northern part of the country, where most of the oil reserves are situated. However, this decision was not accepted unanimously within the Council, demonstrating once more how the Arab world is split and is not concentrating its efforts on really trying to fight ideological extremism and terrorism.

This article is in Italian and can be read here.