Hizbullah flag
Hizbullah flagAFP photo

The Hizbullah terrorist group on Friday slammed U.S. President Barack Obama's demand that nations list it as a terrorist organization, AFP reported.

The group said Obama spoke like "an employee of the Zionist entity."

"He speaks like an employee of the Zionist entity (Israel) and not the highest-ranking official in the administration of the independent state that is the United States," the group said in a statement issued overnight, according to AFP.

"Obama wants the Arabs to accept the enemy entity as a Jewish state in the region and begin complete normalization with it while he fails to mention any of the just demands of the Palestinians," it added.

"In addition, to please the enemy entity, he is calling on the world to consider Hizbullah, one of the main parts of the resistance, as a terrorist group. This confirms the folly of counting on negotiations and proves that the choice of resistance is correct," said the Lebanon-based organization.

The statement came a day after Obama, speaking during his speech to Jerusalem, urged foreign governments to blacklist the group as a "terrorist organization."

"Every country that values justice should call Hizbullah what it truly is -- a terrorist organization," he said, in remarks apparently aimed at the European Union, which has declined to put the group on a list of terrorist movements.

Hizbullah has been on a U.S. terror blacklist since 1995, after a series of anti-American attacks including the bombing of the embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in the 1980s.

Pressure on the EU to add Hizbullah to the list of recognized terror groups has increased since Bulgaria named the terror group as being behind the attack in Burgas last July, in which five Israelis were killed.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged the EU to follow Washington's lead by designating Hizbullah as terrorists in a move that will notably lead to a crackdown on its fund-raising activities.

However, diplomats have indicated that it is unlikely that Europe will name Hizbullah a terrorist organization because of its political strength in Lebanon.

Shortly after the Burgas bombing, the EU decided not to list Hizbullah as a terrorist group.

On Thursday, a Cypriot court convicted a self-confessed Hizbullah operative who had been accused of involvement in a plot to attack Israeli interests on the Mediterranean island.

Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Lebanese and Swedish citizen arrested in the port of Limassol in July last year, was found guilty on five counts -- including participating in a criminal organization, taking part in a criminal act and money laundering.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)