Arab League has revoked Hezbollah's terrorist designation, what does this mean?

Amid fears of the Israel-Hamas War spilling over into neighbouring Lebanon , the Arab League has revoked the terrorist designation of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based and Iran-backed terrorist organisation that controls vast swathes of territories in the country and holds great political sway. It has clashed with Israel since the October 7 attack on Israel on a near-daily basis and has upped the ante in recent weeks, leading to fears of a full-fledged war. Several thousand of Israelis have been displaced in the country’s north for months and cross-border exchange of fire has increased lately.

Even as the United States and other countries are working to prevent the outbreak of a full-fledged war , the Arab League appears to have reached out to the group with the revocation of the terrorist designation. The designation was announced in 2016.

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Why did Arab League revoke Hezbollah’s terrorist designation?

The Arab League has pitched the revocation of Hezbollah’s terrorist designation as part of a policy shift to initiate communication with the group.

Hossam Zaki, the Assistant Secretary General of Arab League, told the Egyptian news channel Al-Qahera that the designation led to severing of communication with Hezbollah and it should not be the case anymore.

“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization. This terminology was reflected in our resolutions and led to the severing of our communication with them [Hezbollah]. Member states of the Arab League have now agreed that this approach no longer applies,” said Zaki.

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Justifying the decision, Zaki said that the Arab League does not mention any list of terrorist organisations and therefore Hezbollah’s designation as a terrorist organisation was not needed.

The Times of Israel noted that the Arab League indeed does not maintain any list of terrorist organisations and the grouping’s 2016 decision appears to have been an ad-hoc decision to be on the same terms as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which had designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation a few days before.

Is Arab League reaching out to Hezbollah?

The Arab League’s revocation of Hezbollah’s terrorist designation has to be seen in the regional context.

In the Arab world, there is great anger against Israel over the deaths and devastation in the Gaza Strip. As the popular sentiment is against Israel, the region’s governments —even though they are frustrated with Hamas and Hezbollah— cannot appear to be going soft on Israel or going hard on groups seen as battling Israel.

The Arab League’s decision can also be seen as how it has been presented: opening of communication channels. Now that Hezbollah is no longer labelled as a terrorist organisation, the Arab League could directly talk with the group and such talks could be geared at stabilising the regional tensions or preventing the escalation of the regional conflict.

As part of the regional context, one should also look at the rising —even if cautious— acceptance of Iran and Syria in the region. Last year, the Arab League readmitted Syria as a member after 12 years of exile over the civil war in the country. Hezbollah had intervened in Syria in support of the Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad and the terrorist designation was also part of the regional pushback against the support of Iran and its proxies like Hezbollah to Assad’s regime. Now that the Syrian Civil War is more or less settled in favour of Assad and Saudi Arabia and Iran have also normalised ties, the context of 2016 in which Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist group no longer exists.

Middle East analyst Seth Frantzman has said that overall context here is the one about the possible Israel-Hezbollah War.

“The overall context here is that the region is concerned about possible war. Countries are considering asking their citizens to leave, and reports say some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are already urging citizens to leave Lebanon. The Kingdom of Jordan has also advised citizens against travel there,” noted Frantzman in an article for The Jerusalem Post.

Hezbollah is part of the Iran-sponsored ‘Axis of Resistance’ in the Middle East that’s pitched against Israel. Like Iran and Hamas, Hezbollah is committed to the destruction of Israel and rejects Israel’s rights to exist. It is the most powerful of all the anti-Israel armed groups in the region. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its public assessment has said the group has around 45,000 personnel. It has further said that the group has an arsenal of around 150,000 missiles and rockets of various types.