The EU blames Hezbollah for the suicide bombing of a bus in Bulgaria in July last year as the reason for the decision, while the resistance movement ruled out any connection with the incident.

"We took this important step today, by dealing with the military wing of Hezbollah, freezing its assets, hindering its fundraising and thereby limiting its capacity to act," Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers who decided on the blacklisting.

The move was advocated by the UK and the Netherlands, but other members of the EU had been reluctant, fearing that it would destabilize Lebanon.

Analysts believe the move is actually a retaliation prompted by the Israeli regime and European supporters of the war in Syria in response to Hezbollah support to the Syrian people against numerous terrorist groups that have been poured to the Arab country to bring down the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The decision is likely to complicate EU’s relations with the Lebanese government, of which Hezbollah is an important part.

NTJ/SHI