The Bahraini interior and foreign affairs ministries, along with the kingdom's legislative authority, are currently formulating a legal framework to govern the inclusion of Lebanon's Hizbullah on the country's list of terrorist organisations. This comes after parliament in late March approved a proposal to put Hizbullah on Bahrain's list of terrorist organisations "to safeguard the domestic front against foreign intervention". The Bahraini cabinet then announced on April 7th it had tasked the interior and foreign ministries with implementing the decision, making Bahrain the first Arab country to take such action against Hizbullah. According to the proposal, the legislation falls in line with action taken by other countries including Canada, the Netherlands and Australia, and comes as a result of "Iranian-backed Hizbullah's increased activities and flagrant interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the region, becoming the arm Tehran uses to export its revolution." Bahrain has said multiple times it has evidence confirming Hizbullah members are training Bahrainis and inciting them to use violence against security personnel in the kingdom, funded by Iran. The parliament submitted the proposal along with evidence it says incriminates Hizbullah in this regard, most notably the arrest of an eight-member cell in Bahrain whose members had links with Hizbullah.
In February, Bahraini authorities announced the arrest of a cell composed of eight Bahrainis, who investigations revealed had travelled between Iran, Iraq and Lebanon and received training on the use of weapons and explosives, according to the Bahrain News Agency (BNA).
In March, Arab interior ministers had condemned "Iranian support of terror operations in Bahrain and Yemen" during the 30th session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council, held in Riyadh, the news agency reported.
The Council also supported "efforts made by Bahrain and Yemen to fight terrorism and the role security forces are playing in uncovering criminal plots", according to BNA.
'SIGNIFICANT STEP'
Including Hizbullah on Bahrain's list of terrorist organisations is one of the most significant precautionary security steps a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) country has taken, according to Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, chairman of the Bahraini Shura Council's committee on foreign affairs, defence and national security.
The move was "bold", he said, and based on a great deal of information showing Hizbullah was behind many political and security disturbances in Bahrain and abroad.
"Hizbullah is a tool used by Iran to create conflict among Arabs and to weaken Iran's neighbouring Arab countries by starting conflicts and sectarian civil wars, as it did in Iraq and Lebanon and now in Syria," Al Khalifa said.
The step comes as unified global mechanisms to criminalise Hizbullah are under consideration, in addition to Hizbullah's increased interference in Bahraini and Gulf affairs, he added.
Bahraini MP Abdul Hakim al-Shammary was one of the sponsors of the proposal to add Hizbullah to the kingdom's list of terrorist organisations.
"What encouraged the parliament to submit this proposal was the result of Hizbullah's decades-long direct interference into Bahraini affairs, [including] training extremist elements on the use of weapons and intelligence work," he said.
What also galvanised the parliament was Hizbullah's intervention into the conflict in Syria by "assisting the Assad regime in killing the Syrian people", al-Shammary said.
The proposal is also precautionary and seeks to anticipate any direct interference by Hizbullah on Bahraini territory, he said.
"The government understands the legislative authority's concerns, and we expect it will introduce amendments to the language of the proposed draft law to align it with international treaties the kingdom is signatory to," he told to Al-Shorfa.
Such amendments would also ensure the law is consistent with the Bahraini constitution and covers both Hizbullah and other extremist groups, he said.
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