France: 'No EU consensus on listing Hezbollah as 'terrorists'!'

"... PARIS- French officials indicated on Wednesday that there was no European consensus on denominating the Lebanese group, Hezbollah, as a "terrorist organisation." The EU regularly establishes a list of organisations worldwide that it views as involved in terrorist activity and, for example, has placed the Palestinian group, Hamas and several groups linked with Al-Qaeda on that list.. Israel has been recently putting pressure on the EU to do the same for Lebanon's Hezbollah, or Party of God movement, which strongly rebuffed an Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006, an achievement that shocked Israel and surprised many. "The designation of a terrorist group by the European Union involves that certain, specific juridical conditions are met," Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said in a briefing Wednesday. Lalliot added that inscribing any group on the "Terrorist List", in line with policies decided in December 2001, is "notably subject to consensus among member States." Media reports here said that France was a leading opponent to putting Hezbollah on the list, probably for fear of provoking trouble in fragile Lebanon, given the situation in Syria..."