Brussels, 06/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 5 February, the United States called on the European Union to take action against Hezbollah, and Israel called on the EU to consider the true character of Hezbollah, after Bulgaria said the group was responsible for the anti-Israeli attack on 18 July that claimed six lives.
The new American secretary of state, John Kerry, said in a press release that Americans “strongly urge other governments around the world - and particularly our partners in Europe - to take immediate action to crack down on Hezbollah”. “We need to send an unequivocal message to this terrorist group that it can no longer engage in despicable actions with impunity”, he added. The US also called on the EU member states to take preventive measures to uncover Hezbollah's infrastructure and its operational and financing networks.
Stating that the attack had taken place “on European soil against a member country of the EU”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press release that he hoped “Europeans draw the necessary conclusions about the true character of Hezbollah”. In July, during his visit to Brussels, the Israeli foreign affairs minister, Avigdor Lieberman, called on the EU to include Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organisations (see EUROPE 10662).
The EU is reflecting on measures. In a press release on 5 February, the spokesperson for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said that Ashton “underlines the need for a reflection over the outcome of the investigation”. “The EU and member states will discuss the appropriate response based on all elements identified by the investigators”, the press release stated, without mentioning Hezbollah.
On 6 February Maja Kocijancic, Ashton's spokesperson, said that the member states will discuss the appropriate response. “Inclusion on the EU's terrorist list is one of the possible options but not the only one”, she said in reply to a question. Several responses are possible - recourse to Europol and Eurojust, judicial procedures, diplomatic and political measures - she added. “The process has only just begun”, Kocijancic said. A European source said that experts are discussing this but the subject is not currently planned for the Foreign Affairs Council on 18 February because “the discussions will take time”.
In July, during the cooperation Council with Israel (see EUROPE 10662), the Cypriot foreign affairs minister, Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis - whose country held the rotating presidency of the EU Council at that time - had said that if the EU had tangible proof of Hezbollah's involvement in the terrorist activities, the EU would plan to include Hezbollah on the list - an inclusion that would require unanimity. Although the military wing of Hezbollah is banned in the United Kingdom, and the whole organisation is banned from the Netherlands, other countries are more reluctant, considering the work of the political wing in Lebanon. Nonetheless, a European source said that it is still too early to know the positions of the different member states and that the last discussion on this subject dates back to six years ago. (CG/transl.fl)