Iran Condemns Germany’s Ban Of Hezbollah Movement

By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Iran has condemned Germany’s decision to ban the militant Hezbollah movement from carrying out activities on its soil. Tehran also threatened Berlin with unspecified consequences for designating Hezbollah as a “terrorist “organization this week, when German police raided mosques and venues linked to the group.

Like the European Union, Germany had so far only outlawed Hezbollah’s military wing while tolerating its political branch. But in a shift welcomed by the United States and Israel, the German interior ministry said it now considered the entire movement a “Shiite terrorist “organization.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah is “a terrorist organization. [It is] deemed responsible for numerous attacks and kidnappings worldwide,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told Germany’s Bild daily. The interior minister has, therefore, “banned the operation of the group” in Germany with immediate effect, his spokesman said in separate remarks.

The ban is also because the group “calls for the violent elimination of the State of Israel. And it questions the right of the State of Israel to exist,” the Interior Ministry added in a statement. “The organization is therefore fundamentally against the concept of international understanding, regardless of whether it presents itself as a political, social, or military structure.”

The ministry stressed that Hezbollah’s “violent denial of the right to exist of the State of Israel fundamentally opposes Germany’s national ethos.” Under the ban, Hezbollah symbols may no longer be used publicly in any assembly, or print, audio, and visual material in Germany. Its assets will be confiscated “to the benefit of the Federal Republic of Germany,” the ministry explained.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemns the German government’s blacklisting of the Lebanese Hezbollah.” It claimed that the measure was “serving the objectives of the U.S. and the Zionist regime of Israel.”

Iran’s angry response came as tensions rose in the Middle East. Syria claimed over the weekend that Israel targeted Hezbollah outposts in Syria, with potential casualties and disruption. Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamist political party and militant group in Lebanon, with close ties to Iran. The group began during the Lebanese civil conflict in 1982 and played a vital role in a 2006 war with Israel.

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