‘US, Israel dictate EU blacklisting of Hezbollah’

‘US, Israel dictate EU blacklisting of Hezbollah’
Thu Jul 25, 2013 07:58:57

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah says the EU decision of blacklisting the resistance group was the result of US and Israel’s pressures on European countries.

"The Israelis are behind this decision, and they have said so themselves. The United States is with them 100 percent,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

"Europe bowed down, and it was not convinced... There were 28 states -- some of which view themselves as being among the world's most important -- that bowed down to an American and Israeli decision."

Nasrallah also said the EU decision is "not consistent" with European states' interests in the Middle East.

The decision, he added, would have no financial effect on Hezbollah.

"We do not have money in any European banks or any other foreign banks."

Referring to Israel, which Nasrallah said "was happy" with the EU decision, he added: "I don't feel at all that this decision is a sovereign European decision. It was dictated to the Europeans."

He also added that the European Union's decision to blacklist Hezbollah's armed wing means it would share responsibility for any Israeli attack against Lebanon or the resistance movement.

"These (European) states have made themselves fully responsible for any Israeli attack on Lebanon or Lebanon's resistance (Hezbollah) or any target of the resistance."

The statement is Nasrallah's first since an EU decision on Monday to blacklist Hezbollah's military wing as an alleged ‘terror group’.

"These states need to know... that they are giving legal cover to Israel for any attack on Lebanon, because Israel can now claim to be fighting terrorism and to be bombing terrorist targets," he said.

The decision to blacklist Hezbollah's armed wing "gives Israel a service for free," Nasrallah added.

"This decision does not affect our willingness. Its objective is to make us bow, to force us to step back and to be afraid.

"But I tell you (Europeans): all you will get is failure and disappointment," said Nasrallah.
He said Hezbollah, "which stood up to... the strongest army in the region for 33 days", would not "bow" down.

Israel fought Hezbollah in 2006 for 33 days, in a war that killed some 1,200 Lebanese, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Nasrallah meanwhile called on the European Union to "recant on its mistake", while scoffing at the distinction made in the decision between Hezbollah's armed and political wings.

"The invention of a military and political wing is an invention of the English, who find easy ways out like this," Nasrallah said, smiling.

In a message to rival Lebanese parties, Nasrallah also warned the EU decision should not be used as an excuse to exclude its members from any future government.

Hezbollah remains just as strong, he said, "and I propose that Hezbollah's ministers in a future government be members of the military wing".

NJF/NJF 

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