Australia’s intelligence ”does not exclude” designating Hezbollah’s branches ”terrorist”

The issue of designating Hezbollah’s branches a “terrorist organization” is gaining momentum in Australia, which has made the country’s domestic intelligence not rule out the decision.

The new move is a major development that could lead to the blacklisting of the entire organization, according to a report in ”the Sydney Morning Herald”, especially as parliament begins to examine the issue through a specialized committee.

The newspaper reported that Australian intelligence chief, Mike Burgess, saying that ”the main point I can make is that our ability to do our work abroad will not be affected; if the list that classifies various entities as terrorists is expanded”.

The recent statement by the Chief of Intelligence is intended to address the concern of a number of officials in the Ministry of Defense and Foreign Affairs about the impact of classification on Australia’s foreign operations; But the key to any change will be the Intelligence Agency, which plays a key role in making recommendations about the status of groups on the banned list.

According to the paper, a specialized committee in the Australian parliament is working to assess whether the ban on the full designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist is appropriate.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security is examining whether Australia’s policy of designating only one branch of Hezbollah – the External Security Division responsible for attacks abroad – as a terrorist organization can be maintained or expanded.

The naivety of differentiating between the branches of terrorism

If Hizbollah, which is often called a “state within a state”, is designated as a terrorist entity, joining it and providing it with funding or other resources would be a crime in Australia.

Three major Australian organizations and an expert on international terrorism attending the parliament session confirmed that Hezbollah has a central command structure that makes it “naïve” to believe there are security differences between its terrorist components and other sections.

Supporters of equality of branches pointed out that designating the party as a terrorist group would make it easier for the police to track and prosecute cases involving drug trafficking, money laundering and monitoring Hezbollah’s opponents abroad, including in Australia.

In 2013, Australia designated Hezbollah’s External Security Service a terrorist organization.

In April 2020, Germany, the UK, Canada and Australia, along with a group of Latin American countries, listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and its activities in those countries were banned.