DOHA: The GCC Secretary-General Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said yesterday that the GCC states will step up measures against Hezbollah’s interests in the region.

In a statement to the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) on the sidelines of the 2013 United Nations Public Service Forum, the GCC chief said that those measures would target Hezbollah’s affiliates, as well as financial and commercial interests.

The statement follows a call made in Doha on Saturday by countries supporting the Syrian rebels to stop intervention by Hezbollah and Iran in Syria. The meeting of the Friends of Syria foreign ministers decided to arm Syrian rebels to “change the situation on the ground” in Syria.

A meeting of prominent Sunni clerics in Cairo last week had called for Jihad against the Syrian regime and its allies Iran and Hezbollah.

On GCC countries’ stance regarding arming the Free Syrian Army, Al Zayani said the issue is part of the duties of the Arab League of which GCC states are members.

He added that the Syrian people have the right to defend themselves, noting that “we still condemn Hezbollah’s intervention in the affairs of Syria and we have taken procedures against it in this regard.”

He said there is co-operation between GCC countries to take more action against interests of Hezbollah in the Gulf.

“GCC stance on the Syrian crisis is clear. We want to stop the killing and transfer power and preserve unity, stability and security of Syria,” said Al Zayani.

Bahrain’s deputy foreign minister Ghanem Al Buainain said earlier this month that the GCC regarded Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria as “sectarian intervention”, but had not discussed listing the group as a terrorist organisation, a step taken by Bahrain last week.

Bahrain has banned domestic political groups from making contact with Hezbollah, a movement it believes has been involved in unrest among its Shia majority.

The Lebanese Shia movement has been backing Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. Assad belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam. Together with Iran, Hezbollah has fought with regime forces to resist rebels trying to oust Assad in a bloody insurgency stretching for over two years now. The Peninsula