Hezbollah: The EU's new 'terrorists'

"...Yet inconsistencies plagued the investigation, according to critics, and this year has seen a chain of contradictory statements emerging from Bulgaria over whether or not Hezbollah was actually behind the bombing, with the new government at one point distancing itself from the comments made by its predecessor, before returning back to accusing Hezbollah.Bulgaria has yet to complete its investigation into the attack, according to the interior minister.

Regardless, it was this, along with a conviction by a Cypriot court against a Lebanese who is said to have confessed to being a courier for Hezbollah, that were listed as the reasons behind the EU decision on Monday to place the group’s military wing on its terrorist list. Cyprus, for its part, was reportedly one of the countries opposed to listing Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organisation. “This is 100 percent related to Hezbollah’s role in Syria, the fall of Qusayr, and the defeat of the Syrian rebels,” Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a political analyst and expert on Hezbollah, told Al Jazeera, referring to the Syrian regime’s victory in June in the battle for the strategic town of Qusayr, in which Hezbollah confirmed it played an active role alongside the Syrian army. “The West understands the Syrian regime is not going to fall, and so this has pushed the EU to come out with this decision,” she said. “This is a PR war where they’re trying to brand Hezbollah as terrorists, and equate them to groups like al-Qaeda.”..."