Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed on Wednesday that it is the IDF, and not Hizbullah, that should be blacklisted as a terror organization.
In his first public reaction to the European Union’s decision this week to blacklist his organization’s “military wing”, Nasrallah wondered whyEurope was not adding Israel’s “military wing”, that is the IDF, to its list of terrorist organizations, given the "occupation" andthe Israeliarmy'sactionsagainst the “Palestinians andLebanese”, as he put it.
"Why are you not defining the State of Israel as a terrorist organization, why do not you define the military wing of Israel, ie. The IDF, as a terrorist organization, while you Europeans recognize that Israel occupies Arab land and does not implement international resolutions for decades. The whole world is witness to the Israeli massacres,” charged Nasrallah.
On Monday, in a compromise to avoid labeling Hizbullah a terror organization, the EU voted to place only its military wing on the list of terrorist entities.
The council of 28 EU foreign ministers could not reach a unanimous vote on the issue, although a majority was reached.
Hizbullah was proven to be behind the terrorist attack on an Israeli tour bus at Bulgaria’s Burgas airport that left six people dead and 35 wounded at the Black Sea resort town last year.
Lebanon, however, demanded last week that the EU keep Hizbullah off its list of terrorist organizations. The group has a sizeable contingent in the Lebanese parliament as well as in its Cabinet, and in a letter to the EU, the government wrote “is an essential component of Lebanese society.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, said on Tuesday that the EU’s decision was a step in the right direction, but was not enough because the EU had failed to also blacklist its political faction.
"One cannot separate one’s right arm from one’s left arm because they are both part of the same body. Hizbullah is a terrorist entity from head to toe and should be treated as such,” said Prosor.