Due to a three-way diplomatic push by the UK, France, and Germany, the European Union may add the Lebanese paramilitary organization Hezbollah to its list of officially designated terrorist organisations. This could strongly effect EU diplomacy in the Middle East and evolving international law concerning terrorism.
The EU defines acts of terrorism as illegal, violent acts designed to intimidate a population, coerce a government, or destabilise a country. The non-comprehensive list, formed in response to 9/11, includes individuals and organisations subject to economic sanctions and prosecution in European Courts.
Hezbollah has a long history of acts that meet the EU’s definition. The organisation, which means “Party of God” in Arabic, was formed in 1980s to fight Israeli and Christian Lebanese forces during the Israeli war in Lebanon. During that time, Hezbollah was responsible for a long list of attacks against both civilian and military targets, including European and American diplomats and peacekeepers.
After Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah continued attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets, most notably provoking a large war in the Summer of 2006. Hezbollah is also responsible for attacks outside the Middle East, such as hijacking a 1985 flight from Athens to Rome and killing over 100 Argentineans in 1992 and 1994 bombings of Israeli and Jewish targets.
Despite its history, most European governments have long resisted US, UK, and Israeli efforts to blacklist Hezbollah. Hezbollah is more than an international terrorist organisation. It is a major political party in Lebanon, and has a powerful Iranian-funded militia. In some areas of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah provides social services and government functions that the central government cannot provide, leading some political scientists to refer to it as a “quasi-state.”
Hezbollah is heavily influenced by Iran and rarely aligned with the wishes of any European government, but countries such as France have feared that listing the group as a terrorist organisation would jeopardise its relationship with the government of Lebanon. They feared a ban could hinder the EU’s Levantine diplomacy, as EU officials are not allowed to meet with members of officially designated terrorist organisations. The EU has blacklisted several Palestinian terrorist organizations, including the military wing of Hamas, but none of these organisations plays a regional role as large as Hezbollah’s.
Until recently, the Netherlands and the UK were the only European countries to list part or all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, and France and Germany opposed designating Hezbollah at the EU level. Several recent events have changed this calculus. Hezbollah has fought alongside Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria, alienating it from many Sunni Muslims. A Bulgarian investigation blamed Hezbollah for bombing a bus full of Israeli tourists at a Bulgarian airport in 2012. However, Bulgaria’s diplomatic response has been delayed by its elections.
The government resigned in February just two days after the results of the investigation were released. Bulgaria’s interim PM said last week that Bulgaria would not initiate Hezbollah’s blacklisting, but encouraged other governments to do so and promised to release more evidence. Bulgaria formed a new government this week, and the new Foreign Minister has yet to acquaint himself with all of the relevant materials but promises to do so soon. The coup de grâce may come not from Bulgaria, but Cyprus: Authorities there caught and convicted a Hezbollah operative for staking out potential targets throughout Europe, providing more specific evidence than the Bulgarian authorities.
The French and German change of heart removes many obstacles to designating Hezbollah, but the decision will still require unanimity among the EU’s 27 member states. France and Germany only support adding the “military wing” of Hezbollah to the list of terrorist organisations. This will not satisfy the United States, Israel, and experts who fear that it is impossible to isolate the “military” section of Hezbollah.
As one Israeli official told the New York Times, “Hezbollah itself does not make any distinction between the military wing and the political wing.” The EU faces a trade-off: Should it maintain its diplomatic flexibility at the expense of leaving Hezbollah loopholes? International law concerning terrorism is still developing, and the fact that such a trade-off exists at all suggests improvements are needed.