The lower house of the Swiss parliament has passed a resolution to ban the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, in a rare move by the European country that has traditionally followed a policy of promoting international dialogue and mediation.
The House of Representatives took the measure on Tuesday with 126 votes in favor, 20 against and 41 abstentions. The security policy committee had proposed the ban.
The Swiss government opposed the anti-Hezbollah move after Switzerland’s Federal Council said that the Lebanese resistance movement could not be banned as a threat to security under the country’s intelligence act because the existing law required sanctions or a ban by the United Nations to be in place for such a move to be applied.
“If Switzerland now moves to ban such organizations with special laws, we must ask ourselves where and how the boundaries are drawn,” Justice Minister Beat Jans noted during the parliamentary debate.
Last week, the Swiss parliament outlawed Hamas over the Palestinian group’s surprise and large-scale attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, against the Zionist entity on October 7, 2023.
Hezbollah opened a support front for Palestinians in Gaza only a day after the Israeli regime unleashed its genocidal campaign in the besieged territory, launching numerous retaliatory attacks against Israeli targets in the occupied territories.
Israel was forced to accept the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah after suffering heavy losses following more than 14 months of fighting and failing to achieve its goals in its aggression on Lebanon. The truce agreement officially came into effect on November 27.
Following the truce announcement, the resistance movement warned it was fully ready to counter further potential Israeli aggression against Lebanon.