Mideast: Israel eyes Italian support for EU terror blacklisting of Hezbollah
last update: July 01, 13:34
Jerusalem, 1 July (AKI) - Israeli premier Benyamin Netanyahu was on Monday due to seek Italy's help in putting militant Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah on a European Union list of terrorist organisations.
"If Hezbollah is not a terrorist group, then I don't know who is," Netanyahu said in an interview with leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera ahead of a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday with his Italian counterpart Enrico Letta.
"They kill everywhere, even on European territory as occurred in Bulgaria," he said, referring to the bus bombing in Black Sea city of Burgas in July 2012 in which five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian driver died.
Britain, which regards Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist entity and last month cited its alleged responsibility for the Burgas attack in a motion to have the British position adopted by the EU.
The placing of a group on the EU's terrorism blacklist requires a consensus from all 27 member states and Italy and Austria have reportedly voiced opposition to such a move against Hezbollah.
Europe's inability to reach agreement on the issue is said to have frustrated American and Israeli officials alike.
"It's hard to see how you cannot have a consensus on Hezbollah as a terrorist organization," Netanyahu was quoted as telling the EU's top foreign policy representative Catherine Aston when they met in Jerusalem on 20 June.
Hezbollah militiamen are known to have been fighting on the side of forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in the 28-month conflict with rebels.
The Jewish state in July-August 2006 fought a deadly 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights that ended with a United Nations brokered ceasefire.
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