Kuwait also started deporting and banning Hezbollah supporters

Kuwait authorities have started to prepare lists of Hezbollah supporters to prevent their arrival in the country and others in anticipation of their deportation, reported the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper on Thursday.

Security sources from Kuwait’s state security general directorate revealed that the names include Lebanese, Syrians and supporters from other nationalities.

They also include media officials and businessmen.

The support to the recently blacklisted party covers contacting Hezbollah financially and politically and through the media.

Those contacting and meeting party officials or its representatives will also be deported or barred entry to Kuwait, said the sources.

Measures against these figures include blacklisting them by Kuwaiti authorities and thereby preventing their entry to the country, refusing to renew their residency if they are already in the emirate, and deportation.

These measures began a week ago shortly after the Gulf Cooperation Council decided to consider the party as terrorist.

So far, six people have been barred entry to Kuwait and five others did not have their residency permit renewed.

All of these individuals work at a television and daily newspaper. The five members whose residency was not renewed have been ordered to leave Kuwait within a month.

Al-Rai newspaper reported that Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammed al-Khaled has granted Kuwait’s state security agency “full authority” in implementing the measures against Hizbullah supporters.

The GCC’s blacklisting of Hezbollahh comes in wake of Saudi Arabia’s decision in February to suspend $4 billion grant to the Lebanese army over the party’s harsh stances against the kingdom and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil’s refusal to vote in favor of Arab League resolutions condemning attacks against Riyadh’s embassy in Iran.

The Arab League last week also voted in favor of branding Hezbollah a terrorist group.

Saudi Arabia and 4 other Arab Gulf countries have also issued travel advisories against travel to Lebanon.

A number of Lebanese expatriates with links to Hezbollah have also been deported.

Once lauded in the Arab world as a heroic resistance movement that stood up to Israel, Hezbollah has seen its popularity plummet in Lebanon and among Sunni Muslims worldwide because of its military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and for interference in the internal affairs of several Arab countries.

Several observers are of the opinion that Hezbollah has ceased being a resistance movement , has become Lebanon’s number 1 liability and has been behaving for years as a mercenary army acting on orders by Iran.

Unfortunately all of this spells out more suffering for the Lebanese people who need to travel to the Arab gulf countries since jobs in Lebanon are scarce and Iran is in much worse economical situation than Lebanon.