European Union to Declare Hezbollah a Terrorist Group

The US State Department indicated Tuesday that it expected the European Union to finally designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, following an intensive US lobbying campaign and suspected Hezbollah plots on European soil.

“We’ve been engaging with our partners in Europe and we are cautiously optimistic – at last – about the prospects for an EU designation of the group,” Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, said during an address at the Brookings Institution.

Benjamin, speaking later to The Jerusalem Post, didn’t give a specific date when he anticipated the designation to be made, but suggested the Europeans will have to “think hard about things in the next few months.”

The US and Israel have long pressed the EU to include the Lebanese group on its terror list, and recently US officials have publicly been making the case that that designation would help with enforcement efforts against the organization and its criminal activities.

Benjamin told the Post that the US has also been sharing information with European counterparts on Hezbollah’s increased activities in their region.

The US and Israel have accused Hezbollah of being behind a bombing that killed Israeli tourists in Bulgaria in July and a disrupted plot against Israelis in Cyprus less than two weeks earlier.

This month, the Bulgarian government announced it has made major advances in its investigation of the bombing and would likely be presenting findings at an EU meeting in January.

Clear Hezbollah ties to the attack could be a significant factor in the EU determination on whether to label Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

“Obviously if the Europeans feel that the proof is decisive then they’ll have to confront the fact that Hezbollah carried out an attack in Europe,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin, speaking ahead of his departure from the State Department, told Brookings that overall the appeal of extremist groups such as al-Qaida is diminishing.

“There are clearly indications that the al-Qaida message continues to wane in popularity,” he asserted.

He said that many of the new governments in the Middle East are also contributing to eroding the capabilities of this and similar groups.

“These governments increasingly show the will to tackle the terror threat,” he said, pointing to the attack on the US outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in September that left four American diplomats dead as an act that awoke many to the internal threat posed by terror groups.

Benjamin also assessed that the citizens of these countries were focused on bettering themselves rather than on taking down others.

“The populations that have historically produced lots of the extremists, these people aren’t interested in violent extremism but in building better lives for their families and their communities within the international system,” he said.

But he added that despite these positive developments, “This is not a reason to relax.”

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=296523

 

Israel still a bit sore that Hezbollah reduced the IDF to dropping cluster munitions as they bid a hasty retreat from South Lebanon in 2006?

It's amazing what you can achieve with the label of "suspected attacks" while not producing one shred of evidence

 

Oh dear, Jacky.

Your heroes are going to be labelled as terrorists and anyone, such as yourself, who supports them will be liable for arrest.

Have a nice day!

 

Im not holding my breath. However some of Israel's political leaders past and present might have to worry about the ICC coming knocking now the recognition of Palestine has granted them access to the court

 

Well that's a two-edged sword, my friend.

The "Palestinians" are also liable for prosecution for terrorist attacks by the ICC.

And as every one of their leaders has blood dripping from their hands, I can foresee that a future cabinet meetings will take place in a maximum security prison in The Hague.

 

Being a 'sympathiser' and 'supporter' of a terrorist organisation is legal you ****ing fud unless you're actually raising funds for that group, or possess material and documents that is seen to 'violate' any part of the terrorism act.

You Israeli pig.

 

This isn't going to happen.

The booted Israeli hole a few years ago btw.

 

"blood dripping from their hands"

Deary me, the poetic license of a fascist. Still when you look at the facts at the ratio of Palestinian civilians killed to Israeli it becomes apparent who has more cause to be worried. And your cries of "Hamas wuz ther" don't wash as the Geneva convention states the presence of combatants in the civilian population does not deprive the population of its civilian character.

That's in Protocol 1, Part 4, Chapter II, Article 50 Point 3 if you want to look it up

 

They don't have pigs in Israel. Though you can get a bacon bagel in Shoreditch, I believe.

 

Not true, there are pigs in Israel and they keep me happily supplied with bacon and spare ribs.

 

Where does this fit into the 9/11 conspiracy theories?

 

Between the 9 and 11, so 10.

 

Here's a thought for you, Jacky:

Is calling a Jew a pig any worse than calling a black man a monkey?

And if not, why not?

I'm fairly sure you would get an IP ban from the Forum if you racially abused a black Forum member.

So what makes you think you can get away with doing the same to a Jew?

 

If you would care to check you would see that wasn't posted by me you *****

 

You're right and I apologise.

But the question still remains valid.

 

Anger overtook his thought process there

 

This place is littered with racism and bigotry TH.

Dry yer legs mate.

 

Blinded by the beeling

 

It's very similar to the hypocrisy shown by the Israeli government continuously carrying out extra-judicial killings and then calling every Tom, Dick and Harry terrorists, that's why