Nobody should have sympathy for Hezbollah: Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton says it will be a ‘lineball’ decision as to whether the government deems the Lebanese organisation’s military wing a terrorist group.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: AAP

Peter Dutton has said “nobody should have sympathy” for the way Hezbollah conducts itself, ahead of the Australian government reconsidering if the Lebanese organisation’s military wing should be deemed a terrorist group.

The Home Affairs Minister was discussing the active review of Hezbollah’s military wing, ahead of security agencies briefing him in April as to whether Australia should follow Britain’s decision last year.

With the exception of New Zealand, all of Australia’s partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance have ­declared Hezbollah a terrorist ­organisation.

Mr Dutton said there were reasons behind the Australian government’s hesitance to label Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist group that he couldn’t go into publicly, and that it would be a “lineball” decision.

“I take the advice from ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) and obviously ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service) as well as defence and others (that) have interest in these matters,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.

“They look at it holistically and what’s in our country’s best interests.

“Talking about this particular case, there might be equities and relationships that we’ve got, there may be intelligence sharing, there may be other ways in which governments work together on a threat of terrorism or whatever it might be.

“So there can be very complicated decision making processes in each of these cases, but ultimately I’ve got to look at all of that and predominantly based on the advice of ASIO.

“It’s up for review again in April so I’ll be having some briefings again shortly.

“When you look at the activities of Hezbollah, nobody should have sympathy for the way in which they conduct themselves, but we need to make decisions based on all of the facts.

“Unfortunately, sometimes in these cases all of the facts aren’t publicly available and we’ve got to make a decision, speaking to the agencies and working out what sometimes is a lineball call, but there are other equities that we need to look at in the consideration of many of these matters.”

However Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia/­Israel & Jewish Affairs Council told The Australian the complexities Mr Dutton mentioned could be overcome.

“While a Hezbollah ban is admittedly not straightforward, as Minister Dutton correctly points out there are complexities to consider, other countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States have managed to overcome these and completely ban Hezbollah,” Dr Rubenstein said.

“Today, Hezbollah completely dominates Lebanon and is increasingly serving as the leading edge of Iran’s international terrorist networks across the Middle East and beyond. This is on top of Hezbollah’s international sleeper network around the world and extensive international criminal activity.”

Talk of reclassifying Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist group comes after comments from Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim that the group as a whole should be proscribed.

“By listing only Hezbollah’s External Security Organisation as a terrorist organisation, rather than Hezbollah as a whole, Australia has been endorsing a ­fiction,” he said.

“Hezbollah leaders themselves have openly and ­repeatedly declared that no substantive separation exists ­between its different wings.

“The organisation from its inception has glorified, promoted and carried out acts of terrorism.”

The Australian revealed on Monday that a bid to have a Sydney man declared a “high-risk terrorist offender” failed as the groups he was accused of supporting — Hezbollah and one of its allies, the Amal party — were not declared terror organisations.

The parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security in 2018 recommended that the government consider adding the military wing to the listing.