Israeli President Shimon Peres called on the European Union to add Hezbollah to its list of terror organizations, ahead of his expected visit to Brussels for meetings with EU leaders.
Speaking at a memorial service for Joseph Trumpeldor, 93 years after his death, Peres warned that the Lebanese Shiite group, which was found responsible by Bulgaria for a deadly attack last July on Israeli tourists in Burgas, was “pushing Lebanon into a bloody war”.
Peres is expected to make a direct plea to label Hezbollah a terror groug during his upcoming EU visit.
Invoking the EU’s continued resistance to blacklist Hezbollah in the wake of the terrorist attack on European soil, as it apparently continues to make a distinction between the military and political wings of the group, and despite calls from several of its own member states, as well as from the US and Israel who have long designated the group as such, Peres said: “Now, after it has been proved that Hezbollah was behind the terror attack in Bulgaria, on European soil, and murdered innocent civilians, and as reports increase of its involvement, along with Iran, in attacks in Cyprus and Nigeria, the time has come for every country in the world, and especially the European Union, to add Hezbollah to its list of terror organisations."
"The sword of Hezbollah threatens the peace of Lebanon more than the security of Israel”, as he cautioned that the culture of spiralling violence across the Arab World from Yemen to Libya “have nothing to do with Israel – these are fires ignited from within”.
“Israel has always sought peace, a country seeking to put out the flames,” he added.
Warning further of the threat of arms smuggling from Syrian leader Bashar al Assad’s increasingly desperate regime to close ally Hezbollah, as well as from Iran, for whom Israel continues to insist Hezbollah serves as proxy, he concluded:
“There is nothing wiser than peace; there is nothing better for the Middle East then regional peace. Terror against Israel will not achieve its aims but the opposite, it harms its instigators. We still face grave dangers but we will overcome them just as we overcame dangers before."