Last Monday, the European Union placed the military wing of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group and political party, on its terror list in a major policy change toward the Middle East.

The EU’s 28 foreign ministers, including Malta’s George Vella, reached the decision unanimously at their monthly meeting, swiftly swaying the last nations that had expressed opposition by committing to continued political dialogue with Beirut.

The action came after prolonged diplomatic pressure from the United States, The Netherlands and Israel, which consider Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.

“The EU is sending a strong message to Hezbollah that it cannot operate with impunity, and that there are consequences for its actions,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

Hezbollah issued a statement late Monday describing the EU decision as “hostile and unjust and not based on justification or evidence”.

It alleged that the EU gave in to “Zionist American pressure in a dangerous way and took dictation from the White House,” adding, “It seems that this decision was written by an American hand with Zionist ink.”

Britain also had pushed for the EU action, citing a terrorist attack in Bulgaria’s Black Sea resort of Burgas last year that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian. Hezbollah’s military wing was accused of involvement, an allegation it denied.

In March, a criminal court in Cyprus found a Hezbollah member guilty of helping to plan attacks on Israelis on the Mediterranean island.

Both Bulgaria and Cyprus are EU members.

“The EU has sent a clear message that it stands united against terrorism,” said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. “It shows that no organisation can carry out terrorist acts on European soil.”

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle emphasised European unity. “If you attack one of our European countries, you get an answer from all of us,” he said.

The blacklisting entails asset freezes and paves the way for possible travel bans on members of Hezbollah’s military wing. The ministers hope it will also curtail fund-raising.

But implementation promises to be complicated since officials will have to unravel the links between the different wings within Hezbollah’s organizational network and see who could be targeted for belonging to the military wing.

Diplomats late Monday were working on pinpointing the entities and organisations that make up the military wing. Because of this legal uncertainty it was unclear how many assets could be involved, and how many individuals could eventually be targeted.

Hezbollah, a highly secretive organisation, does not talk about its business outside Lebanon.

Analysts and officials close to the group say it is not believed to have significant assets in Europe and that any it did have were probably withdrawn before Monday’s decision.

The Iranian-backed group plays a pivotal role in Lebanese politics, dominating the government since 2011. It has since sent its members to bolster Syria’s President Bashar Assad forces in their assault on rebel-held areas.

The EU vote triggered concerns in Lebanon that the decision would affect the bloc’s funding for the country, but French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said economic aid would be unaffected.

Lebanon’s outgoing prime minister, Najib Mikati, expressed disappointment in the bloc’s action, saying: “We wish that the EU countries had conducted a more careful reading of the facts.”

Even before Monday’s decision, aid groups complained that European governments have been reluctant to donate funds to help Lebanon cope with a massive flow of refugees from Syria’s civil war because of Hezbollah’s dominance in Lebanon’s government.

Timor Goksel, a Beirut-based political analyst, called the EU action “a public relations move”, but said it could affect Hezbollah in Lebanon by providing “much ammunition to its foes”.

Walid Sukariyeh, a pro-Hezbollah legislator who belongs to the group’s bloc, said the decision underscored the influence of the US on Europe.

“Europe tried to have an independent stance away from America’s diction, but I believe by this stance it has abandoned its independence and the independence of its policy,” he said.

Kerry said the EU move would “have a significant impact on Hezbollah’s ability to operate freely in Europe by enabling European law enforcement agencies to crack down on Hezbollah’s fundraising, logistical activity, and terrorist plotting on European soil”.

Israel also welcomed the European decision. It fought a bitter month-long war with Hezbollah in 2006, and has accused Hezbollah of carrying out attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets around the world. Hezbollah has denied involvement in some and not commented on others.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the EU ministers for the action, even though he insisted that “as far as Israel is concerned, Hezbollah is one organisation without distinctions between its wings”.

Westerwelle said the evidence from the attack in Bulgaria was enough of an impetus for the blacklisting.

Several EU nations have pointed to Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria as further reason for the move.

As Hezbollah’s hand in the Syrian conflict has become public, Lebanon has seen a spike in Sunni-Shiite tensions that has sparked gun battles in several cities around the country. Many Lebanese Sunnis support the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad in Syria, while Shiites generally back Hezbollah and the regime in Damascus.

The EU only made its decision after it became clear that political channels would remain open with all players in Lebanon.

“Designation will do nothing to affect the EU’s and the UK’s strong relationship with, and support for, Lebanon,” Hague said.

Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister, said: “It is good that the EU has decided to call Hezbollah what it is: a terrorist organisation. For years The Netherlands has pushed for listing Hezbollah. That’s why I’m satisfied that we took this important step today, by dealing with the military wing of Hezbollah, freezing its assets, hindering its fund-raising and thereby limiting its capacity to act.”

William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, said: “The EU has sent a clear message that it stands united against terrorism. It shows that no organisation can carry out terrorist acts on European soil, such as the appalling attack in Bulgaria one year ago, without facing the consequences.”

Over the past two months, the UK cited mounting evidence of Hezbollah’s involvement in a bus bombing a year ago in Bulgaria that killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver, as well as the arrest of a confessed member in Cyprus who was suspected of planning another attack.

Although it was not a legal consideration under the EU’s sanctions guidelines, some diplomats said that Hezbollah’s increased involvement in the Syrian civil war had also persuaded reluctant member states to set aside concerns.

The US and Israel have long campaigned for the EU to join them in blacklisting the group. Yet even after being presented with evidence about the Bulgarian bombing, several member states remained cautious.

The Irish, in particular, were said to be worried that blacklisting the Hezbollah might put at risk their own troops on peacekeeping operations in southern Lebanon. Others argued that it might further destabilize the Lebanese government and squander the EU’s diplomatic influence in the region.

Writing in last Sunday’s Sunday Times, Ivan Camilleri wrote that Malta could even block EU’s plan to blacklist Hezbollah although he made it clear such a stance had nothing to do with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s recent threat to use its EU veto sporadically to force member states to help Malta on irregular migration.

Sources in Brussels were quoted as saying that during the technical meetings held in preparation for the meeting, Malta was reluctant to back the majority of EU member states, including the UK, Germany, France and The Netherlands.

A spokesman for Malta’s foreign ministry told the paper Malta was not comfortable with the blacklisting proposal. “Certain issues, especially the feasibility of this measure and modalities of its implementation have not been adequately addressed.

“Malta is also concerned that the (black)listing would have implications for the political stability of Lebanon and by extension contributes to further the destabilization of what is already a region where massacres and senseless killings are, unfortunately, daily occurrences.”

As the meeting began on Monday, the outcome was described as uncertain, with Ireland, Malta and the Czech Republic poised to oppose.

But their concerns were later said to have been addressed by a related declaration that the EU would maintain dialogue with all political parties in Lebanon and continue to supply aid. The terrorist designation, as stated earlier, is only limited to Hezbollah’s military wing.

Following the agreement, Mr Hague sought to emphasise the distinction, as the designation would “do nothing to affect” the EU’s strong support for Lebanon.

Analysts agreed that the EU’s decision would have little impact on the bloc’s dealings with the Lebanese caretaker government which contains two Hezbollah ministers. The blacklisting is, however, embarrassing for the Lebanese government, not least because it requested the EU not to go ahead just a few days before.

The designation adds Hezbollah to a terrorist list drawn up by the EU after the 11 September attacks that includes several individuals affiliated with al-Qaeda, as well as groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Real IRA.

Back in Malta after the meeting, Foreign Minister George Vella was quoted by our sister newspaper as saying that Malta had “stuck to its guns during the meeting, and aired its worries and doubts about the blacklisting”.

“Malta posed the questions that it had to pose, and ultimately it decided against blocking the process together with the other countries which opposed it,” Dr Vella said.

Malta had initially expressed its “reservations to the blacklisting”. “With regard to the listing of members of the Hezbollah, or of the whole military wing, as a terrorist organisation, Malta had certain reservations.”

[email protected]

(Articles in the international media and an AP news report have been used in this article)