British govt. renews desperate attempt to put Hezbollah on EU terror list

Britain’s first attempt to blacklist Hezbollah ended in failure several weeks ago, when its drive to reach a unanimous decision against the popular resistance failed after the EU voiced concern that such a move would lead to instability in Lebanon and the Middle East.
 
The failed attempt was triggered by Austria and the Czech Republic’s opposition. The EU terror list includes several groups such as the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and Colombia's FARC rebels, who are subject to an asset freeze.
 
The fresh attempt launched by Britain and backed by France, Germany and the Netherlands, calls for the issue to be put on the agenda of the next meeting of EU foreign ministers on July 22. The anti-Hezbollah alliance believes the issue needs to be debated at a more senior “political” level to achieve a breakthrough.
 
However, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said that the agenda for the meeting has not yet been finalized.
 
British authorities claim that Hezbollah’s involvement in the war in Syria has led to some skeptics in the European Union to soften their stance against blacklisting the popular resistance, thus paving the way to the UK to re-launch a failed attempt to put it on the EU terror list.
 
This comes as EU counter-terror specialists met on the issue but failed to reach unanimity on blacklisting the group after objections from several countries.
 
A Foreign Office spokesman in London said Britain believed the evidence that the military wing of Hezbollah was a terrorist organization was “compelling” and strong enough to warrant adding it to the blacklist.
 
Meanwhile, a Czech diplomat said his government remained opposed to blacklisting Hezbollah’s armed wing because of the difficulty of distinguishing between its political and military wings.