The French government supports adding the armed wing of Hezbollah to
the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations, an Arabic daily
reported.
The London-based Al Hayat daily reported on Friday that French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius informed U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry of Paris’ decision at a meeting on Wednesday.
According to the report, the French government endorsed the
designation following the finding by Bulgarian authorities that
Hezbollah was responsible for the terrorist attack last summer on a
busload of Israeli tourists in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas,
Bulgaria, and because of the support Hezbollah is providing to the
embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The attack in Burgas last July killed five Israelis and one
Bulgarian. Earlier this month, a court in Cyprus convicted a
Lebanese-Swedish man, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, of plotting to kill Israelis
for Hezbollah. He was sentenced to four years in jail on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Bahrain declared the Lebanese group a terrorist
organization and called on other Persian Gulf nations to follow suit.
Until now, The European Union has resisted American and Israeli
pressure to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist entity. The only country
in the European Union that has declared Hezbollah a terrorist entity is
the Netherlands. The U.K. considers only Hezbollah’s military wing as a
terrorist body.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Drug Enforcement
Agency said Hezbollah routinely launders money in Europe. Germany's
domestic intelligence agency said in its annual threat report for 2012
that Hezbollah had 950 supporters in Germany.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2013/03/29/3123216/report-france-to-label-hezbollah-militiamen-terrorists#When:09:46:00Z
Friday 29 March 2013
Report: France backs designating Hezbollah militiamen terrorists
Posted @ 19:33
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