Guatemala designates Hezbollah as terrorist organization
Guatemala's recognition comes a day after Estonia announced that it will impose sanctions on Hezbollah.
By EVE YOUNGPresident Reuven Rivlin with President-elect Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, December 8, 2019.(photo credit: Mark Neiman/GPO)
Guatemala designated all branches of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization on Friday, according to the Foreign Ministry. This makes Guatemala the eighth country to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 2020.Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi welcomed the designation and congratulated Guatemala's government. "I call on other countries in Latin America to fight the terror led by Hezbollah globally," said Ashkenazi. He went on to say he was happy to see that diplomatic efforts "led by the Foreign Ministry to label all branches of Hezbollah a terrorist organization are bearing fruit and being recognized worldwide and especially in Latin America."The struggle against Hezbollah is a long and difficult one, but we cannot ignore the fact that global efforts against the organization are doing great damage to it, strong expressions of which can be seen by citizens of Lebanon becoming fed up with the organization for the disaster it caused them," Ashkenazi said.Guatemala's recognition comes a day after Estonia announced that it will impose sanctions on Hezbollah, becoming the fifth EU state to take the step of banning Hezbollah in its entirety, following Germany and Lithuania this year.At a meeting with ambassadors from the region in August, Ashkenazi called on Latin American countries to ban Hezbollah saying that "Terrorism affects all countries, and we have to fight it in a mutual way." According to Ashkenazi, “The best way to do that is sanctions on Hezbollah.”Last year, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, who was president-elect at the time, said that he would designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization upon taking office.Israeli Ambassador to Guatemala Mattanya Cohen said that Iran and Hezbollah are already operating in Latin America.Hezbollah has a major presence on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, and in Venezuela.Cody Levine, Lahav Harkov and Maayan Hoffman contributed to this report.
