Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov will brief next week his EU colleagues on the results of the probe into last year's terror attack in Burgas which killed six people including five Israeli tourists.
In remarks reported by the Bulgaian media Mladenonv said his country position will be made clear at the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels on February 18. He said the EU should send a "clear message" to Hezbollah.
Last week, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov declared that Bulgarian investigators now have "a well-founded assumption" that the perpetrators of the bus bombing belonged to the military formation of Hezbollah.
“We have information that Hezbollah financed two persons, one of them is the bomber. The two are holders of valid Canadian and Australian passports. The two are members of Hezbollah’s military wing. A third person who participated in the attack entered Bulgaria with them on June 28.”
According to classified information, the first suspect died in the explosion with a 3-kilogram bomb he was carrying in a backpack. His two accomplices returned to Lebanon via a European country.
The Australian is understood to have been living in Lebanon for six years before the attack.
Bulgaria's choice of whether to name Hezbollah as standing behind the Burgas bombing has been seen as pivotal as to whether the European Union will officially label Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. Israel the US and Jewish groups have called on the EU to make such a move.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of the Israeli victims that the perpetrators of last year's terror attack in the Bulgarian city of Burgas "will pay the price for their deeds."
"The attack in Burgas was an attack on European soil against a member country of the EU. We hope that the Europeans draw the necessary conclusions as to the true character of Hezbollah," he said.
But diplomatic sources said divergences remain among the 27 EU member states over whether adding Hezbollah to its terror list. While Holland and Britain appear to favour it, France, Italy, Cyprus and Malta are reluctant out of fear for conseqences for Lebanon’s political stability. Several Hezbollah ministers sit in the government.
"Europe still insists on sparing the government in Lebanon any jolt that might lead to its resignation, a move that would plunge Lebanon into a serious political vacuum," a source close to Lebanese Prime Minister Mikati was quoted as saying by Lebanese media.
Last week, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU needed "to assess the implications of the investigation" and stressed that any decision on adding Hezbollah to the EU list of terrorist organisations would require a unanimous decision by the 27 Foreign Ministers.
Bulgaria will hand over a detailed report on the investigations to the Lebanese authorities.
"Bulgaria pledged to Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour that it will hand over all the useful information to aid Lebanon in discovering the truth," a Bulgarian official said.

by: Yossi Lermpkowicz