KSA welcomes Hezbollah designation as 'terrorist' by UK

CAIRO – 1 March 2019: Saudi Arabia has welcomed the UK’s decision to designate the Iranian-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

The Saudi Presidency of State Security announced late on Thursday that the decision is an important step in the fight against terrorism and its sources of finance at a regional and international level.

Over the past two decades, Saudi Arabia has exerting strenuous efforts to eradicate terrorism financing, extremism and money laundering.

Last week, Saudi Public Prosecutor Saud al-Muajab asserted that Saudi Arabia plays a vital role in the fight against terrorism at the international level, referring to the measures taken by Riyadh domestically with the recently issued law on combating crimes and their financing.

It added that Hezbollah represents a real and clear threat to international stability and security, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The presidency added that the decision reflects the UK’s keenness on countering terrorism and extremist ideologies.

The UK said on Monday it would join the US, Canada, Israel and the Arab League in banning the all of Hezbollah. Previously it had just proscribed its militant wings as “terrorist.”

Saudi Arabia said it will continue to work with its allies to stop Hezbollah and Iran’s efforts to destabilize the region, to maintain international peace and security.

In June 2015, the Saudi Kingdom managed to get a membership at the the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF), a regional group of FATF, as during the Plenary Meeting in Brisbane, Australia, FATF member countries unanimously supported Saudi Arabia’s promotion as an observer member.

To achieve this status, considerable efforts to implement legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system have been recognized by the FATF high-level mission that visited the Kingdom in early June 2015.

The President of FATF praised the Kingdom in its role to combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism in particular, through the actions of the Anti-Money Laundering Permanent Committee.