Brussels, 02/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - American members of Congress have been putting pressure on the EU since September to consider Lebanon's Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, as was done by the USA in 1995. On 27 September more than 250 members of Congress sent two letters to the president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and to the Cypriot minister for foreign affairs Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis - whose country currently holds the Presidency of the European Council of Ministers - to make their request.
In the letter to Barroso, the members of Congress urge the Commission to include Hezbollah on the EU's list of terrorist organisations, and they stress the partnership between the EU and the US in the essential effort to fight against terrorism. They say that, according to some, Hezbollah also serves as a political party and supplies social services, but it is nonetheless undeniably, and primarily, an organisation that perpetuates acts of terrorism.
In the letter to Kozakou-Marcoullis, the members of Congress ask for the Council's disappointing decision not to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group to be reviewed - when a growing number of reports show that the group operates in Europe to finance, plan, recruit and conduct acts of terrorism. They hope that Kozakou-Marcoullis will take action to bring about consensus in the Council, which is urgently needed to weaken Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure.
Unanimity required to designate an organisation as terrorist. In a letter of 14 September to High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, 75 senators underlined that “the EU should recognise Hezbollah for what it is - a terrorist organisation”. “A terrorist designation from the EU would not only subject Hezbollah to further sanctions, but would also send a message to Hezbollah that Europe and the United States will not tolerate its dangerous and violent tactics”, they say in the letter, as quoted by DPA. The parliamentarians also highlight Hezbollah's links with Iran.
The European External Action Service (EEAS) has confirmed to EUROPE that it received the letter, saying that it has not yet replied. It also said that in order to add Hezbollah to the list of terrorist organisations, “depending on the information available, the member states would be entitled to consider the listing of a new entity under Common Position 931 (the EU's autonomous terrorism sanctions regime) or its sanctions regime concerning Syria (Hezbollah would help the regime).” Either listing would require unanimous support among the member states. The EEAS said that if new evidence was brought forward and if a member state was to raise it in the Council working group, “there would then be a discussion on whether to list this organisation or not”.
At the informal Council of foreign ministers, which was held in Paphos on 7 September, the Dutch minister, Uri Rosenthal, asked his colleagues to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, as his country has already done. But the required unanimity does not exist.
The Israeli minister for foreign affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, also asked for the EU's designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation when he came to Brussels on 24 July (see EUROPE 10662). (CG/transl.fl)