SIX Gulf Arab states led by Saudi Arabia declared the Lebanese political organisation Hezbollah a terrorist group yesterday over its support for the Syrian government against foreign-backed rebels.

Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) secretary-general Abdullatif al-Zayani said the designation was a response to Hezbollah’s expeditionary force in Syria and alleged activities in Iraq and Yemen.

He also claimed that Hezbollah had carried out hostile acts against GCC members including Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.

“What Hezbollah is doing in Syria and Yemen is for me criminal, illegitimate and terrorist,” said former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, a Saudi ally.

The move came less than two weeks after Saudi Arabia announced it was cutting £2.85 billion in aid to Lebanese security forces and urged its citizens to leave the country.

Riyadh intended to drive Hezbollah out of Lebanon’s unity government, a move that could reignite the country’s civil war.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah branded the Saudi kingdom hypocritical, saying it had supported and armed Islamic State and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front against Syria’s government with billions of dollars.

“We have to point facts out, criticise their acts and unmask their conspiracies and atrocities whether in Syria, Bahrain or Iraq … Even the car bombs in some Lebanese areas were sent upon Saudi commands,” he claimed.

Mr Nasrallah also expressed hopes for a prompt political settlement of the Syrian conflict which would “contradict the will of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, some countries, Israel and in a way the US as well.”

On February 28 the Greek coastguard seized a Togolese-flagged cargo ship Kuki Boy off the island of Rhodes, where it was en route from the the Turkish port of Izmir to Lebanon, and found it loaded with arms and explosives.

A spokeswoman for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday that Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) should included in peace talks set to begin in Geneva on March 7.

Turkey has demanded the PYD’s exclusion from negotiations, claiming that it and its armed wing the YPG are terrorists.