Foreign relations of Hezbollah

[18] The UN's Deputy Secretary-General, Mark Malloch Brown, contests characterisations of the Lebanese militia as a terrorist organisation in the mould of al-Qaeda.

Though Hezbollah presence in Syria was limited before 2012, Damascus had been the most important facilitator of Iranian support to the group and became increasingly active as a provider of material and political assistance on its own in the 2000s.

[25][26] According to Israeli author Ehud Yaari, Hezbollah's presence and strategy in Lebanon is a model for Hamas in terms of military, political, and media operations.

[33] United States intelligence officials also speculate there has been contact between Hezbollah and low-level al-Qaeda figures who fled Afghanistan for Lebanon.

[10] There was a fatwa issued several years ago by Abdullah Ibn Jibreen, a former member of Saudi Arabia's Council of Senior Ulema, which describes Hezbollah as "rafidhi" – a derogatory term for Shiites used by some Sunni fanatics.

[43][44] Nasrallah has denied links to al-Qaeda, present or past, stating in a 2002 interview that the two groups work in different areas and face different enemies.

[45] As part of a surge of intersectarian support for Hezbollah during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's deputy leader, called for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Zionists and join the fighting in Lebanon.

The foreign ministers of all 28 EU countries agreed to the decision which was based on concerns over Hezbollah's role in the 2012 Burgas bus bombing and the organizations involvement in Syrian civil war supporting the Ba'ath government.

[70] In a televised interview in June 2024, Nasrallah threatened to attack Cyprus if it allowed Israeli military access to Cypriot airports and bases.

[75] Morocco cut ties with Iran for supporting and giving aid to the Polisario Front through Hezbollah, via the Iranian embassy in Algeria.

[76][77][78][79] Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro considered designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, following Argentina and Paraguay as part of the Triple Frontier.

[80] In the region, members of the Hezbollah's Barakat clan maintain commercial relations with the criminal syndicate Primeiro Comando da Capital.

[87] In June 2024, the Arab League's Deputy Secretary General Gossam Zaki announced they have ceased referring to Hezbollah as a 'terrorist organization'.

[88] He later added that his words were "interpreted out of context",[89][90] while noting that the league "does not resort to labeling entities as terrorist organizations and does not adopt such lists.