“Berri called the president and thanked him for his efforts to prevent Hezbollah from being listed on the EU terror list despite Arab and local pressure pushing for such labeling,” the state-run Nation News Agency reported Friday.

The speaker said that such pressures can at best be described as “very stupid.”

Berri said that Sleiman’s endeavor is the best for Lebanon’s internal situation, according to the NNA.

The speaker also thanked some European countries “that rejected pleasing Israel at the expense of Lebanon.”

Sleiman has asked for Lebanon’s representative to the EU to submit a request to the European body to keep Hezbollah off a list of terrorist groups because the party is an “essential component of Lebanese society.”

EU foreign ministers are scheduled to decide Monday whether to blacklist Hezbollah’s military wing or not.

Last year, the EU flatly rejected an Israeli call to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

The EU regards Hezbollah as an active political party in Lebanon. It says there is not enough evidence to warrant listing the Lebanese group as a “terror group.”

Led by France, European countries argue that their relations with Lebanon, where Hezbollah provides extensive social services and its political wing holds government power, would be damaged by the designation.

Currently, among the 27-EU member states, only the UK and the Netherlands are in favor of adding Hezbollah to the EU list of terror.

SHI/SHI