BEIRUT (Dispatches) –
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has strongly condemned Australia’s decision to label the group as a “terrorist organization.”
Lebanon’s al-Manar television network reported, Hezbollah said in a statement the Australian decision is “a humiliating submission to American and Zionist diktats” and “a blind bias” in the service of Zionist regime interests.
The movement also stressed that the Australian move and similar decisions previously made by some Western countries “will not affect Hezbollah’s stance, and its natural right to resist and defend its country and people, and to support resistance movements against the Zionist occupation and aggression.”
According to the statement, the Australian designation will also fail to affect the morale of the Lebanese people or that of the free people around the world.
In 2003, Australia blacklisted Hezbollah’s military wing, but the Wednesday’s decision expanded its listing to include the entire group.
Palestine’s resistance movement Hamas also condemned Australia’s decision, saying the move is a blatant bias in favor of the Zionist colonial occupation.
“Hamas Movement condemns and denounces Australia’s decision to designate Hezbollah in Lebanon as a terrorist organization,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem in a statement on Thursday.
The resistance group, he said, considers the decision a blatant bias in favor of the regime’s colonial occupation to cover up its terrorism and continuous aggression against “our Arab and Islamic nation, foremost Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine.”
“Hezbollah’s resistance to the Israeli occupation’s thuggery is a legitimate act and a humanitarian, religious, national and moral duty according to all international laws and humanitarian and national norms,” the Hamas spokesman further said.
The Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad also “strongly denounced” the Australian decision, saying it came in response to “Zionist pressures.”
The group also stressed that Hezbollah is confronting aggression and terrorism, adding that the movement won’t be affected by the “wrong and unjust” decision that would rather increase its determination to “continue on its path of confronting the Zionist enemy.”
Meanwhile, the Political Bureau of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement described the Australian decision as a “criminal move that serves the Zionist entity.”
Hezbollah was established following the 1982 Zionist invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. The movement drove out Zionist troops from Lebanon in May 2000.
Since then, the group has grown into a powerful military force, dealing repeated blows to the occupying regime’s military, including during a 33-day war in July 2006.
On Friday, the British government did the same with the political wing of Hamas, joining the United States, Canada and the European Union in fully banning the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance group, which plays a significant role in defending Palestinian rights against frequent Zionist aggression.
London has since 2001 banned the group’s military wing, known as the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, across the UK.
Qassem warned that the “classification of the Palestinian and Arab resistance forces as terrorist organizations encourages the Zionist entity to escalate its crimes against the peoples of our nation and threatens security and peace in the region.”