LONDON: Britain said on Monday it plans to ban all wings of Hezbollah due to what it called its destabilising influence in the Middle East, classing the Lebanese Islamist movement as a “terrorist organisation”.

London had already proscribed Hezbollah’s external security unit and its military wing in 2001 and 2008 respectively, but now it wants to outlaw its political arm too.

“Hezbollah is continuing in its attempts to destabilise the fragile situation in the Middle East and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party,” Home Secretary (interior minister) Sajid Javid said.

“Because of this, I have taken the decision to proscribe the group in its entirety,” he added in a statement.

The Iran-backed group is already deemed a terrorist organisation by the United States which last week expressed concern about its growing role in Lebanon’s government.

Hezbollah lawmakers termed the British move a “violation of sovereignty”.

The British ban, which will come into force on Friday subject to parliament’s approval, means anyone who is a member of Hezbollah or invites support will be committing a criminal offence with a potential sentence of up to 10 years in jail.

Explaining its decision, the British government said the organisation continued to amass weapons in contravention of UN Security Council resolutions, while its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had prolonged “the conflict and the regime’s brutal and violent repression of the Syrian people”.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2019