[Elder of Ziyon] EU says Hezbollah isn't a terrorist organization

From Al Arabiya:

The European Union turned down a request Tuesday by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist group after last week's deadly bombing in Bulgaria.

"There is no consensus for putting Hezbollah on the list of terrorist organizations," said Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

Israel blames Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah for Wednesday's suicide attack at the Black Sea airport of Burgas in which five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver died.

But an EU decision would require the unanimous approval of all its 27 members.
Sitting beside the Cypriot minister at a news conference held after annual EU-Israel talks, Lieberman said: "The time has come to put Hezbollah on the terrorist list of Europe."

"It would give the right signal to the international community and the Israeli people."

But Kozakou-Marcoullis said Hezbollah was an organization comprising a party as well as an armed wing and was "active in Lebanese politics".

"Taking into account this and other aspects there is no consensus for putting Hezbollah on the list of terrorist organizations," she said.

The EU would consider this if there were tangible evidence of Hezbollah engaging in acts of terror, she added.

Arutz-7 compiled a list of terror acts that are attributed to Hezbollah:

• The 1982–1983 Tyre headquarters bombings.
• The April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing.
• The 1983 barracks bombing that killed 241 US marines, 58 French paratroopers and 6 civilians at the US and French barracks in Beirut.
• The Hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985.
• The Lebanon hostage crisis from 1982 to 1992, including the kidnapping and torture-murder of CIA Beirut station chief William Buckley.
• The 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires, killing 29, in Argentina.
• The 1994 AMIA bombing of a Jewish cultural centre, killing 85, in Argentina.
• The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 Saudi citizens, and 1 American.
• The 2000 cross-border kidnapping and murder of IDF soldiers Adi Avitan, Benyamin Avraham, and Omar Sawaidwere.
• In 2002, Singapore accused Hizbullah of recruiting Singaporeans in a failed 1990s plot to attack US and Israeli ships in the Singapore Straits.
• The 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri for which 4 Hizbullah members were indicted by the Hague.
• The 2006 kidnapping and murder of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, which precipitated the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War.
• Indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians with rocket fire during the ensuing 34 day conflict.
• The January 15, 2008, bombing of a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Beirut.
• In 2009, a Hizbullah plot in Egypt was uncovered, where Egyptian authorities arrested 49 men for planning attacks against Israeli and Egyptian targets in the Sinai Peninsula.
• A failed 2011 bombing in Istanbul targeting the Israeli consul, which left eight dead.
• A spate of bombings targeting Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia, and Thailand in early 2012.

Yeah, but what has Hezbollah done lately?

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder of Ziyon at 7/25/2012 05:00:00 AM