Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki’s statement on Hezbollah’s status, made on Saturday, stirred reactions and questions within both local and Arab circles.
During a televised interview on Cairo’s news channel, Zaki announced that the Arab League no longer classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. He then asserted that the organization “does not maintain an official list of terrorists” and clarified that making such “designations” falls outside the Arab League’s jurisdiction.
Following Zaki’s visit to Beirut, these statements, asserting one thing and its opposite, sparked surprise.
An MP from the anti-Hezbollah camp told This is Beirut that he preferred “not to comment on what he considers to be a non-decision.”
The Lebanese Forces (LF) party pointed out that the statement came from Hossam Zaki and did not constitute an official decision of the Arab League. In a statement issued on Monday, the LF said that “such televised declarations are often aimed at sending targeted messages,” urging Zaki to clarify his position.
The deputy secretary clarified on Monday that his comment was misinterpreted and taken out of context. In a press statement, Zaki meticulously clarified that his earlier words “did not imply the disappearance of the numerous reservations and objections regarding Hezbollah’s behavior, policies, actions, and stances, not only locally (in Lebanon) but also regionally.”
It is worth noting that in March 2016, the Arab League designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, urging it to “stop spreading extremism and sectarianism.”
Zaki mentioned a League resolution on “upholding Arab national security and countering terrorism,” which stipulated the importance of refraining from providing any form of explicit or implicit support to entities or individuals involved in terrorist activities.
For his part, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Ghait stressed that his deputy “has always been committed to fully implementing the Arab States’ resolutions on all issues.”
Aboul Ghait also added that he had instructed Zaki “to visit Lebanon as a personal envoy to communicate with the Lebanese political forces.”
A commentary was published on social networks, in which an official Saudi source suspected the League’s Secretary General and his deputy of working to benefit their individual political interests, without consulting with the member States, and without respect for the League’s political line. This message was deleted, probably following the press briefing by the two concerned personalities.
