The European Union is unlikely to make a decision on blacklisting Hezbollah for “a least five [or] six months,” Italy’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Development Cooperation Lapo Pistelli said Wednesday. Pistelli spoke to The Daily Star as he rounded out a three-day visit to the country with a brief tour of the National Museum, which included sneak peeks at a selection of exhibits not yet on public display.More details on the opposition within Europe to declaring Hizballah a terrorist organization can be seen here.
The deputy minister listed the debate between member states over evidence of Hezbollah’s involvement in a terror attack in Bulgaria in July 2012 as one of the main reasons he believed the organization, or part of it, would not be added to the bloc’s terror list in the immediate future.
“At the preliminary discussion in Brussels [earlier this month] there were some arguments raised by the Bulgarian government and the Cypriots about the proofs and evidences [pertaining to] blacklisting the organization ... so it seems to me this decision will require time,” Pistelli said.
The EU has come under increasing pressure from the U.S. and some of its members to add Hezbollah, or at least its military wing, to its terror list.
Pistelli described this debate as “very sensitive,” and was clear that, regardless of discussions in Europe, Hezbollah is a very “relevant player” in Lebanon and could not be excluded from a “real national unity government.”
While Europe effectively legalizes the terrorist organization, the Gulf Arabs in the region are moving forward with sanctioning it:
Senior Gulf Cooperation Council officials met in Riyadh on Thursday to coordinate sanctions in the six member states against Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement over its support for the Syria regime.Of course, it isn't that the Gulf countries are suddenly more sensitive to terror than Europe. They would never sanction Hamas or any other Palestinian terror group. It is that they are Sunni and they hate Shiites, represented by Hizballah, and the organization's adventurism in Syria is giving them the excuse they want to sanction it.
The meeting was “to develop mechanisms to monitor movements, financial transactions and business operations of Hezbollah,” said Bahraini deputy interior minister Khaled al-Absi.
The GCC monarchies decided on June 10 to impose sanctions on Hezbollah, targeting residency permits and its financial and business activities in reprisal for the group’s armed intervention in Syria.
The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Even so, it is jarring to see Muslims in the forefront of taking actions against other Muslims while Europeans can't figure out what to do.