Germany Would Back Hizbullah Terror Listing
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle supports an initiative for the EU to list the military wing of Hizbullah as a terrorist group, a spokesman said in Berlin Wednesday.
Britain has filed a request to blacklist Hizbullah, which is to be discussed early next month. The United States has labelled Hizbullah a terrorist group for decades.
A German diplomatic source said that "the German position is based on facts that are increasingly crystallizing and on progress made by Cypriot authorities in the investigation of terrorist activities."
Bulgaria has blamed the party for an attack against a tourist bus at the airport of the Black Sea city of Burgas in which five Israeli citizens and the Bulgarian bus driver were killed in July last year.
German foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told a regular government briefing on Wednesday that "all this has meant that Minister Westerwelle believes that a (terror) listing of at least the military wing of Hizbullah should be supported".
The European Union set up a list of international terrorist organizations after the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.
The bloc freezes the assets of groups and individuals that have committed or are known to be planning terrorist acts such as attacks or taking hostages, and bans financial support for them.
On Tuesday, an EU diplomat close to the matter said the bloc hoped to clinch an agreement on putting Hizbullah on the list "by the end of June."
The United States said on Tuesday it does not differentiate between Hizbullah's armed and political wings as it again urged Europe to blacklist the group.
Currently, Britain and the Netherlands are the only EU nations to have placed Hizbullah on their own lists of terrorist groups.
Some EU members including France have been reluctant to take action against Hizbullah, arguing that this could destabilize Lebanon, and fearing reprisals against U.N. forces in southern Lebanon.
Source: Agence France Presse
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