●The GCC designates Hezbollah a terrorist organisation

On 2 March 2016 the Gulf Cooperation Council designated Hezbollah a "terrorist organisation", and the Arab League followed on 11 March with reservations from Lebanon and Iraq; Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah answered in a televised speech on 1 March and afterwards that Saudi Arabia was "punishing all of Lebanon", and a wave of deportations of Lebanese Shia from the Gulf began.