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Why Doesn't the EU Call Hezbollah a Terror Group? | Opinion
ARSEN OSTROVSKY AND MATTHIJS SCHÜSSLER
ON 8/10/23 AT 7:12 AM EDT
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Israel Sends Message to Iran and Hezbollah in First-Ever US Army Drill
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OPINION
HEZBOLLAH
IRAN
EUROPEAN UNION
TERRORISM

During a debate on the crisis situation in Lebanon last month, the
European Parliament, for the first time, adopted a resolution calling
for the European Union to add the whole of Hezbollah to its list of
banned terrorist organizations.

This welcome call came almost 10 years to the day after the EU added
Hezbollah's so-called "military wing" to its terror list. That came in
the wake of the group's 2012 suicide bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria,
which killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver.

In the period since, several European countries, including Germany, the
United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Austria, among others, have taken
the principled decision to ban Hezbollah in its entirety. The Arab
League and Gulf Cooperation Council have done the same. The United
States has also proscribed Hezbollah in full, and a recent bipartisan
resolution reiterated a long-standing call on the EU to designate the
whole group as a terrorist organization.

Hezbollah Supporters
Shiite Muslim supporters of Hezbollah attend a gathering to commemorate
Ashura, a 10-day period during the Islamic month of Muharram to remember
and mourn the seventh century killing of Prophet Mohammed's grandson
Imam Hussein, in the southern suburbs of Beirut on July 29.
ANWAR AMRO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
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So, why does the EU still maintain an artificial distinction between
Hezbollah's so-called "military" and "political" wings, allowing the
group to continue operating virtually unfettered across Europe?

In case one needs a refresher, Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based jihadist
terrorist organization, funded, armed, and serving entirely at the best
of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which provides the group with some $700
million per year in funding.

Hezbollah's primary goal is not only the elimination of the State of
Israel, but of Jews worldwide. Only a few days ago, Hezbollah
Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah reiterated that the entire Middle
East will not rest until the "cancerous gland" that is Israel is removed.

However, Hezbollah is not only a direct threat to Israel, but also a
very real threat to the EU as well. There is a long history of terror
and terror-related activities carried out against European targets. In
addition to the Burgas bus bombing, in recent years, Hezbollah has
carried out operations in Greece, Cyprus, Belgium, France, Italy, and
Germany.

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To help underwrite their terrorist activities, Hezbollah operates an
extensive global narco-terrorism network, spanning from Latin American
to Europe. According to Europol's June 2022 European Union Terrorism
Situation and Trend Report, "Hezbollah has been using the EU as a base
for fundraising, recruitment and criminal activities from which they
obtain significant profits."

Hezbollah is now sending fighters to support Russia, in its relentless
war of aggression against Ukraine, and since the conclusion of the 2006
war with Israel, Hezbollah is estimated to have amassed more than
150,000 mostly Iranian-made rockets, aimed at the heart of the Jewish
state, in flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

In addition, Hezbollah has also become a major backer of the Assad
regime in Syria, where they have sent fighters and have used as a base
to receive weapons from the IRGC in Iran, contrary to UN and EU policy
and regulations. In this regard, it should also be noteworthy, that last
month's European Parliament resolution that called to designate
Hezbollah in full as a terrorist entity, also called to add the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps to its list of banned terrorist organizations.

In its 2019 decision to add Hezbollah's "political wing" to its list of
proscribed terrorist organizations, Britain's Home Secretary Sajid Javid
said the UK came to a realization that "we are no longer able to
distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political
party."

As far back as 2004, when Netherlands became the first country in Europe
to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group in its entirety, Dutch
intelligence determined that "Hezbollah's political and terrorist wings
are controlled by one coordinating council," and "this means that there
is indeed a link between these parts of the organization."

In case Brussels has any doubts, they need only listen to Hezbollah
leadership itself, with Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy leader,
reaffirming "Hezbollah has a single leadership," reinforcing that "the
same leadership that directs the parliamentary and government work also
leads jihad actions in the struggle against Israel."

The EU's intransigent refusal to designate Hezbollah a terrorist
organization in full essentially boils down to the preposterous argument
that doing so would somehow destabilize the domestic situation within
Lebanon. France is leading this position because of its historical
connection to the country.

But here is a newsflash: Lebanon is already an economic basket case,
where the majority of people live in abject poverty, in large part due
to the rampant corruption and the omnipresence of Hezbollah, which is
effectively running a parallel state within a state.

According to a June 2023 report by the International Monetary Fund, in
the four years since the beginning of the economic meltdown, the
Lebanese economy has contracted by about 40 percent, the lira has lost
98 percent of its value and inflation has been in triple digits.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah continues to profit from Lebanon's financial crisis
making it, according to Forbes, the richest terror organization in the
world, amassing a fortune of more than $1 billion.

In short, the EU's ongoing refusal has only further emboldened
Hezbollah, providing the whole group legitimacy, while giving Iran a
stronger foothold in Europe. Hezbollah is a genocidal terrorist group,
not a rational actor that has Lebanon's best interests at heart. It is
not only naïve, but foolish and reckless to believe they can be reasoned
with.

It is long past time the EU designates the entire group as a terrorist
organization. Doing so will make Europe, Lebanon, and the Middle East
safer, plus deliver a major blow against Iran's malign influence in the
region and Europe.

Arsen Ostrovskyis a human rights attorney and CEO of The International
Legal Forum, a global network of lawyers and activists combating
antisemitism and terror in the legal arena. You can follow him on
Twitter at: @Ostrov_A.

Matthijs Schüssler is the Executive Director of ELNET EU & NATO, a
non-partisan policy organization dedicated to strengthening relations
between Europe and Israel. You can follow ELNET on Twitter at @elnetwork_eu.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.