The European Union appeared Friday set to put the military wing of Hezbollah on the EU terror list now that that it has clear evidences of the Lebanese group’s involvement in terrorist activities in Bulgaria and Cyprus, a decision that will be taken Monday by the 28 European Foreign Ministers at their meeting in Brussels.
While the EU has so far been unable to reach a decision on a request by Britain to blacklist Hzbollah’s military wing, a senior European Union official said Friday that while a decision was not made yet, ‘’we are moving in that direction.’’
‘’The evidence that Hizbollah’s military wing is a terrorist organisation and that they have engaged in terrorism on EU soil is compelling. That is why we believe that their formal listing by the EU as a terrorist organisation is fully justified. We are working closely with EU partners on this issue and want to reach a robust, collective EU position,’’ the British Foreign Office said.
The EU official insisted that a blacklisting decision would be exclusively linked to the terrorist attack in Burgas where five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed just one year ago and a four-year jail sentence handed down by a Cypriot court in March to a Hezbollah operative accused of plotting to attack Israeli interests on the island. ‘The decision would have nothing to do with EU sanctions against Hezbollah for its role in the civil war in Syria,’’ he added.
He said the number of EU members states who have difficulties with the blacklisting ‘diminishes.’ Austria was said to be the latest country to have dropped its opposition to the move. ‘’It will be up to the ministers to take the political decision on Monday,’’ he said.
Such a decision needs unanimity among the 28 EU member states.
Two or three countries appeared to be still reluctant to agree to the move as they sought assurances that the decision would not jeopardize the EU’s dialogue with all Lebanon’s political forces, but with the support of Britain, France, Germany and Holland momentum was behind blacklisting the group. ‘’No country would want to veto such a decision,’’ one EU source said.
On Wednesday, in a bid to soften concerns by some countries that blacklisting Hezbollah's military wing could upset the fragile political situation in Lebanon., EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton suggested member states make a statement Monday pledging to maintain dialogue with all political parties in Lebanon and promising that EU aid to the Lebanese government wouldn't be affected.
Hezbollah has ministers in the current Lebanese government.
Lebanon’s President and Prime Minister called on the EU ‘’not to place Hezbollah, an essential component of Lebanese society, on the list of terror organisations". The Lebanese ambassador to the EU was to make a formal request at a meeting on Friday in Brussels with Pierre Vimont, the head of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s foreign afairs department.
But some in Europe think that a partial ban of Hezbollah falls dramatically short of the necessary action to rope in the European activities of the Lebanese group.
Charles Tannock, a British Conservatice member of the European Parliament, said : “I fully support efforts to blacklist Hezbollah’s military wing, but this will only partially solve the problem given that the military and civilian wings are so closely entwined.’’
If the EU Foreign Ministers confirm confirm the move on Monday, Hezbollah would join the likes of al Qaeda, the Kurdistan Workers' Party and Hamas. Only Britain and Holland have already put Hezbollah on their national terror lists.
Blacklisting Hezbollah would freeze its assets in Europe, impose travel bans and prevent it from raising funds there.
On Thursday, Bulgaria commemorated the one-year anniversary of the deadly attack at Sarafovo airport in Burgas on an Israeli tourist bus and called for sanctions against Hezbollah, which is widely suspected of being behind the bombing.
At a ceremony in the Black Sea resort to mark the six dead and 35 wounded in the attack, Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski said the EU should "work towards a consensus decision that would allow the military wing of Hezbollah to be added to its list of terror organizations."
"There are clear links to Hezbollah behind this attack," Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said Thursday, citing new information from foreign intelligence services.
He pointed to "the very professional preparation and execution of this terrorist act."
Victims' families took part in a religious ceremony at the site of the attack, followed by the inauguration of a monument with six columns representing each of those killed.
This week also marked the anniversary of the 1994 terrorist bombing that destroyed the seven-story Jewish community center AMIA in Buenos Aires and left 85 dead and 300 wounded.
Iran and Hezbollah were said to be behind the attack but 19 years later the quest for justice remains unfulfilled, as no one has been arrested and brought to justice.
In 2007, Interpol issued red notices for the apprehension of five Iranian officials, including Iran's current Defense Minister and one Hezbollah operative, but no one has yet been detained.