EU Could List Hezbollah as Terrorist Group

By LAURENCE NORMAN 

The Wall Street Journal 

BRUSSELS—The European Union could label Lebanon-based Hezbollah a terrorist organization after Bulgaria linked the Shiite organization to a deadly bomb attack there in July, an EU official said Wednesday.

The U.S., Israel and others have pushed Brussels for years to toughen its stance against Hezbollah, but France, Sweden and others have resisted the pressure. A report issued Tuesday by Bulgarian investigators reopened the debate, finding two of the alleged perpetrators in the attack, which killed five Israeli tourists, were members of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem rejected the Bulgarian report Wednesday, saying it was the result of an Israeli campaign "to intimidate people and countries against Hezbollah."

Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said Wednesday that blacklisting Hezbollah was one of several options.

"Currently Hezbollah is not on the list of terrorist organizations. As I said, the European Union will look into several options. This is one of them but not the only one," she told reporters. "There are also actions that can be taken through various channels including, for example, through Europol, Eurojust, judicial action, political and diplomatic measures, and so on." Europol is the EU's law enforcement agency, and Eurojust is its judicial cooperation unit.

The EU could push member states to deliver more information to Europol about Hezbollah or individuals linked it. Europol could also be asked to broaden its investigation of the people identified in the Burgas attack to see what links they have to other criminal activities, including drug trafficking, organized crime or arms smuggling, said a person familiar with discussions.
Only two EU countries currently label Hezbollah a terrorist organization—the U.K. and the Netherlands. The U.K. blacklists only the military wing of the Shiite organization.

Blacklisting the organization could allow regional authorities to clamp down on financial flows to the group and open the way for freezing assets linked to Hezbollah in Europe.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said that if the Bulgarian evidence proves accurate "then consequences will have to follow" for Hezbollah. U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague on Tuesday urged the EU to respond "robustly to an attack on European soil."

EU officials acknowledged that a debate on ties with Hezbollah would be difficult and was unlikely to be settled immediately. A Bulgarian official outlined Tuesday's report to other diplomats Wednesday, and they agreed to return to the issue in coming days, according to several diplomats.

"We all know that the member states are divided on these issues. They always have been," one senior official said. "The more cautious member states will want to see the evidence Bulgaria has before deciding how the EU should respond."

EU leaders are unlikely to discuss the issue when they gather in Brussels on Friday. But Bulgaria would almost certainly place it on the agenda for a meeting of EU foreign ministers on February 18, several diplomats said.

A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said various options were being considered. "We take note of the Bulgarian interior minister's declarations on the subject of the Burgas attack," a spokesman said. "We will draw conclusions from this in coordination with our European partners."

Meanwhile, pressure on the EU from outside the bloc continued. In Washington Tuesday, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, called on Europe to take "proactive" measures to disrupt Hezbollah's financing and operational networks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also urged European leaders to draw the "necessary conclusions as to the true character of Hezbollah."

—Gordon Fairclough and Ruth Bender contributed to this article.