Bahrain Moves to Take Measures against 'Hizbullah Interests'
Bahrain on Wednesday launched investigations and started gathering information about “Hizbullah's interests” in the kingdom ahead of taking “measures” against them.
Bahraini Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed bin Abdullah al-Khalifa has “directed security bodies to probe possible Hizbullah activity in the Kingdom of Bahrain, including financial investments, commercial and economic activity, operations disguised as charity, bank accounts, money transfers and individual members of the organization, to take the required legal procedures,” said a statement carried by Bahrain's state news agency.
“These investigations are part of the steps being taken as a result of designating Hizbullah as a terrorist organization by the Kingdom of Bahrain,” the agency added.
“This also coincides with the Gulf Cooperation Council's recent announcement that member states will consider Hizbullah as a terrorist organization and will look into their activities in the Gulf region,” it said.
The GCC "decided to look into taking measures against Hizbullah's interests in the member states," GCC chief Abdul Latif al-Zayani told reporters at the end of a ministerial meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
After the meeting, Bahraini Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ghanim al-Buainain said that "nobody could cover up Hizbullah's actions in regional countries."
"It is a terrorist organization and this is how Gulf states see it," he added.
However, placing Hizbullah on the GCC's "terror" list was "a technical and legal matter that needs to be further studied," the Bahraini minister said.
On May 27, Shiite-majority Bahrain banned Bahraini opposition groups from having contact with Hizbullah, a day after the foreign minister of the Sunni-ruled kingdom branded the party's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as a "terrorist."
The decision appeared aimed at opposition groups, which are mostly Shiites, who dominated anti-regime protests that erupted in February 2011 before coming under a GCC-backed brutal crackdown a month later.
In April, the kingdom decided to list Hizbullah as a "terrorist organization", following a recommendation by the parliament that is boycotted by the opposition.
Nasrallah is a popular figure among the Shiites of Bahrain. But the opposition that is battling for democratization, insists that its political agenda is Bahraini, and not linked to Iran, or other Shiite sides.
Despite the March 2011 crackdown on protests, Shiites continue to demonstrate in their villages, triggering frequent clashes with police.
A total of 80 people have been killed since the protests erupted, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.
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