The Russian ambassador to Lebanon has said that Russia sees Hezbollah as not a terrorist organisation, but rather as fighting terrorism.

In an interview on OTV in Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin said that “With regard to Hezbollah, we do not see it as a terrorist organization in any way whatsoever.

“On the contrary, it is an organization that fights terrorism. That's it. There is nothing more to say about this.

“Therefore, all the decisions that are made by the Americans or by the Arab League are wrong in our view, and we oppose them.”

Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon, established by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard after Israel’s war with Lebanon in 1982.

The group is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Kingdom, the United States and some Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia.

Last year the US intensified sanctions on the group, including targeting two members of the Lebanese parliament for the first time, as well as the Jammal Trust Bank, which it claimed had ties to the group. The bank, which denied the charges, was forced to close afterward.