“Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother acteth subtly, and every neighbor goeth about with slanders” (Jeremiah 9:3)
In a move that required an affirmative vote from all of the 28 member-states, the ministers of the European Union have agreed to brand the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
The move is more than symbolic, as it now makes Hezbollah sympathizers within any EU state to send Hezbollah money or for any European diplomats from meeting with with Hezbollah’s military staff.
A number of EU members had been hesitant to vote in the affirmative because they feared it would further destabilize the situation in Lebanon. Additionally, others were concerned it would still be difficult to distinguish fully between the group’s military and political wings.
Hezbollah has a greatly powerful political arm that had a dominant presence in the last Lebanese government. Therefore, in order to assuage the more skeptical EU members to vote for designation many other EU members had been proposing a compromise that called to “continue dialogue with all political parties in Lebanon.”
The Lebanese government had on Friday warned Brussels not to move against Hezbollah, claiming that the militant group was an “essential component of Lebanese society”. However, it appears Hezbollah’s continued involvement in the ongoing blood-riddled Syrian civil war has pushed many of the EU members who were on the fence over to the side of designation.
Additionally, countries that supported designation point to the recent evidence released by Bulgaria that fingers Hezbollah for the bombing of an Israeli tourist bus in Burgas last year that left six dead and hundreds injured. There have been a few other incidents where officials around the world have caught Hezbollah operatives planning attacks against Israelis worldwide.
The EU is currently embroiled in another controversial situation after passing a bill that bans all products from Israel that come from Judea and Samaria.
Hezbollah has already been blacklisted by the United States, Canada, Australia, the UK and the Netherlands.
