Guatemala to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization

Guatemala President-elect Alejandro Giammattei, who is currently on a visit to Israel, met on Sunday with Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz in Jerusalem and announced that the first thing he will do when he takes office next month will be to approve the declaration of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Giammattei made clear that he would work to ensure that no Hezbollah member will be able to stay in Guatemala and operate from its borders, and also pledged to work so that other countries in Central America make a similar decision. “The friends of Israel are my friends and the enemies of Israel are our enemies,” he said.

Giammattei and Minister Katz also agreed to tighten the security cooperation between the two countries in the fight against Hezbollah.

This was made possible after talks and continuous contacts between Foreign Minister Katz and the President-elect, whom Katz also met at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Katz thanked the President-elect for his warm attitude towards the State of Israel and for the relocation of his country’s embassy to Jerusalem.

Argentina several months ago officially designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and ordered the freezing of its assets in the country.

Recent reports indicated that Brazil is considering a similar move.

In 2013, the European Union blacklisted Hezbollah’s “military wing” as a terrorist organization, while failing to blacklist the group’s political arm.

However, EU members the Netherlands and United Kingdom consider all of Hezbollah a terrorist entity, as do the United States, Canada, Israel and even the Arab League.

The British government formally announced in February that it intends to ban the political wing of the Hezbollah terror organization, after previously having banned its military wing.