The Secretary General of Iran’s Lebanese-proxy Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah condemned Germany for its decision to designate his militant group a “terror organization.”
In a televised address from one of his undisclosed bunkers in Israel’s northern neighbor Lebanon, Nasrallah asserted that the decision was nothing-less than a blatant politically-rooted capitulation to the will of the United States and Israel; saying “Where does Hezbollah have terrorist activities in Germany? Let them present one file, there is none. So, this is a political decision that shows Germany has succumbed to the American will and to satisfy Israel.”
The moved, which was hailed by Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz as “a very important decision and a valuable and significant step in the global fight against terrorism,” was officially adopted by the Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer last week on Thursday, April 30th.
Consequently, German police authorities have conducted numerous raids on suspected locations belonging to Hezbollah and its offshoots in Berlin, Bremen, Munster, Recklinghausen and Dortmund, among others.
Meanwhile, the Interior Minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia Herbert Reul praised Berlin for its move banning the “appalling Israel and Jew haters, people who do not question the right of Israel to exist but openly call for the destruction of the state” from operating in Germany. He argued that they “are in obstruction of the constitution and go against intercultural understanding and that is why German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer today imposed this national ban on this self-named party of god.”
Minister Reul further noted that while “A complete ban or a dissolution was sadly legally not possible as it concerns a foreign rather than a German organization but a ban on all activities also has an immediate effect. As of immediately it will be illegal to take part in demonstrations or to show propaganda writings or symbols of this organization.”
According to security officials, there are some 1,050 Hezbollah members residing in Germany. Since the Federal decision, however, Minister Reul levelled a warning to Hezbollah and other terror organizations, in which he emphasized “You should not feel safe here, the German and North-Rhine Westphalia security forces are onto you and will continue to use every opportunity to make your lives difficult.”