The European Union has agreed to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on its terrorism blacklist, a move driven by concerns over the Lebanese militant group’s roles in a bus bombing in Bulgaria and the Syrian war.
The powerful Lebanese Shiite movement, an ally of Iran, has attracted concern in recent months for sending thousands of fighters to support Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government, an intervention that has influenced the regime’s ability to take and hold territory.
Britain and the Netherlands have long pressed their EU peers to impose sanctions on the Shiite Muslim group, citing evidence it was behind an attack in the coastal Bulgarian city of Burgas a year ago, which killed five Israelis and their driver.
Until now, many EU governments had resisted lobbying from Washington and Israel to blacklist the group, warning that such a move could fuel instability in Lebanon and add to tensions in the Middle East.
Hezbollah functions both as a political party that is part of the Lebanese government and as a militia with thousands of guerrillas under arms.
Lebanese caretaker foreign minister Adnan Mansour said: “This will hinder Lebanese political life in the future, especially considering our sensitivities in Lebanon. We need to tighten bonds among Lebanese parties, rather than create problems.”
The move opens the way for EU governments to freeze any assets Hezbollah’s military wing may have in Europe.
Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said: “It is good that the EU has decided to call Hezbollah what it is: a terrorist organisation. We took this important step dealing with the military wing of Hezbollah, freezing its assets, hindering its fundraising and thereby limiting its capacity to act.”
By limiting the listing to the armed wing, the EU was trying to avoid damaging its relations with Lebanon’s government.
But Hezbollah does not formally divide itself into armed and political wings, and Amal Saad Ghorayeb, who wrote a book on the group, said identifying which figures the ban would apply to would be difficult.
“It is a political, more than a judicial decision. It can’t have any real, meaningful judicial implications,” she said, adding it appeared to be “a PR move” to hurt Hezbollah’s international standing, more connected with events in Syria than with the case in Bulgaria.
Israel’s deputy foreign minister Zeev Elkin welcomed the decision, but expressed disappointment that only the armed faction was included.
Hezbollah parliamentary member al-Walid Soukariah said the decision puts Europe “in confrontation with this segment of people in our region”.
He said: “This step won’t affect Hezbollah or the resistance. The resistance is present on Lebanese territory and not in Europe. It is not a terrorist group to carry out terrorist attacks in Europe, which is forbidden by religion.”
The Iran-backed movement, set up with the aim of fighting Israel after its invasion of Lebanon three decades ago, has dominated politics in Beirut in recent years.