Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what effect Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon has on the UK’s policies in that region.

Hizballah's destabilising influence threatens regional stability and endangers Lebanon and its people. The UK has long had a no contact policy with the whole organisation. Hizballah was proscribed in its entirety in March 2019 and an asset freeze put in place against the entire organisation in January 2020. The UK does not provide any assistance or funding directly to Hizballah, Hizballah-led ministries or Hizballah-led institutions. Following proscription, we went through a due diligence process with all our programme implementing partners to ensure that they were fully aware of the implications of the UK decision to proscribe Hizballah in its entirety. We regularly raise our concerns about Hizballah at the UN Security Council, and call on all parties to abide by the provisions of relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.