Gulf Monarchies Discuss 'anti-Hizbullah Moves'
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Senior Gulf Cooperation Council officials met in Riyadh on Thursday to coordinate sanctions in the six member states against Hizbullah over its support for the Syria regime.
The meeting was "to develop mechanisms to monitor movements, financial transactions and business operations of Hizbullah," said Bahraini deputy interior minister Khaled al-Absi.
The GCC monarchies decided on June 10 to impose sanctions on Hizbullah, targeting residency permits and its financial and business activities in reprisal for the group's armed intervention in Syria.
Absi told reporters two expert teams will be formed: one to "coordinate with central banks" and the second to review "legal, administrative and financial matters" linked to the sanctions.
Last month's measure was taken "after the discovery in GCC states of several terrorist cells linked to the group," said Absi.
However, he did not say how many Hizbullah "suspects" would be affected by the sanctions or their estimated assets and financial and commercial operations in the region.
The sanctions would be implemented "in coordination... with ministers of commerce and the central banks of the GCC," the council's Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani has said.
The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Qatar expelled 18 Lebanese citizens from the gas-rich Gulf state on June 20, a government source in Beirut told Agence France Presse.
An estimated 360,000 Lebanese work in the Gulf, according to the daily An-Nahar, remitting some $4 billion (three billion euros) annually.
A staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, of the Alawite sect of Shiite Islam, Hizbullah has backed him since protests erupted in March 2011, openly declaring its military involvement last month.
The Sunni monarchies of the Gulf back the mostly Sunni rebels, and the GCC has warned that it might add Hizbullah to its list of terrorist groups.
04 July 2013, 17:21
13
it's list of terrorist groups? as if terror and al qaeda were created, financed, and manned by Norway, Norwegian gaz, and Norwegian protestant fundamentalists with golden beards and blue eyes!!
Will be very interesting in the future, when it is revealed who is financing, and sending car bombs into Iraq!
04 July 2013, 17:25
13
Mowaten, if we have to comment on your 'intelligent'mathematics.. remittence is EXTRA MONEY that they do nNOT spend and choose to send home to their families, or bank accounts etc.. it is extra income that they do NOT need to live on.. if it is 1000 USD a month on average that they can save, not bad at all as an average!!! They are not paid like crap, besides many of them own their own businesses and employ many people from many different nationalities. Companies and businesses that should have been based in lebanon had our country not been the most corrupt and backward in the Middle east.
04 July 2013, 17:54
54
definitely there is something wrong in the numbers: not a single Lebanese sends back less than a thousand per month.
I know this because I was there for over 10 years.
04 July 2013, 18:27
23
Remitting = money saved, not money earned. And not all of them send their savings back to Lebanon.
04 July 2013, 19:51
36
if they're lead by Iran, hen they should seek new jobs there!!!
My little finger tells ne that their newly elected president will less in favour of Hezb Ebola than the previous one.
05 July 2013, 09:37
12
Individuals has nothing to do with the current situation and cannot be accused or expelled from the Gulf due to other mistakes, I had a word with some Gulf friends of mine involved in the Governments in one of the GCC States and they told me that, they will certainly not tackle innocent and expelled without reasons. So basically they will target suspicious business with big amounts of dollars being transfer along with groups meeting, ainsi de suite..... I hope no Lebanese get expelled,
05 July 2013, 10:38
31
it seems naharnet's freedom of speech stops at having different opinions.
