A parliamentary inquiry has been launched into why Australia lists only one offshoot of Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews last week re-listed Hezbollah’s External Security Organisation as a terrorist organisation but maintained Australia’s longstanding position not to do the same for the other wings of the Iranian-backed group.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews re-listed Hezbollah’s external security wing as a terrorist group last week.Credit:Rhett Wyman
Parliament’s powerful security and intelligence committee on Wednesday said it would review the re-listing of Hezbollah and would probe whether Australia should list the entire group, or at least the rest of its military wing, as a terrorist organisation.
The inquiry will place further pressure on the Australian government to explain why it distinguishes between the organisation’s various wings, a position questioned by MPs from both sides of politics in recent years.
Hezbollah, which dominates Lebanon’s security and political institutions, has been accused of terrorist attacks, kidnappings and smuggling weapons and explosives. The External Security Organisation is Hezbollah’s military and security wing that operates outside Lebanon. It also has a paramilitary wing, the Jihad Council, and a political wing, the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party.
The decision to proscribe a terrorist organisation lies with Australia’s Governor-General, on the advice of the government, which then criminalises any membership or association with that group. Other groups on the list include Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab and Islamic State.
Australia’s stance is at odds with its partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance – the United States, Canada, Britain and New Zealand – which either list the whole of Hezbollah, or at least all of its military wing, as a terrorist organisation.
The US this week called on governments around the world to take action against Hezbollah after its Treasury Department sanctioned seven Lebanese nationals it said were connected to the group and its financial firm.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the threat posed by the group to the US and its allies “calls for countries around the world to take steps to restrict its activities and disrupt its facilitation networks”.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS), which will conduct the inquiry, urged the government in 2018 to “give further consideration to extending the listing to include the military wing” of Hezbollah. But the government last year said it was satisfied that its current listing was appropriate.
Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, said it was disappointing the government had not upgraded its proscription of Hezbollah after the PJCIS recommendation.
“This re-listing is inconsistent with how all of Australia’s Five Eyes partners treat Hezbollah,” he said. “The reality is Hezbollah does not have wings and all of this murderous terrorist group – backed by the world’s foremost state-sponsor of terrorism, Iran – needs to be proscribed.
“Hezbollah sends militia to fight for Assad in Syria, it has tens of thousands of precision-guided missiles pointing towards Israel and the group has planned terrorist attacks in Australia’s own region and been involved in criminal activity in Australia. Yet Australian citizens have raised funds for it and have flown its flag on Sydney streets.”
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