Guatemala designated all branches of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation today, making it the 12th country in the past year-and-a-half to declare Hezbollah a terror organisation.
Guatemala’s recognition comes a day after Estonia announced that it will impose sanctions on Hezbollah. This year, Germany and Lithuania also banned the organisation.
As part of the move, Guatemala agreed to bar Hezbollah operatives from its territory and “to fight against financing” the Lebanese Shiite group, the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi welcomed the designation and congratulated Guatemala’s government and said: “The struggle against Hezbollah is a long and difficult one, but we cannot ignore the fact that global efforts against the organisation are doing great damage to it, strong expressions of which can be seen by citizens of Lebanon becoming fed up with the organisation for the disaster it caused them”.
He added: “I call on other countries in Latin America to fight the terror led by Hezbollah globally”.
Hezbollah has a major presence on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, and in Venezuela.
The UK Government proscribed the Hezbollah terror group in full in February last year, citing its “destabilising activities in the region” and commitment to “armed resistance to the State of Israel”.
