The U.S. House of Representatives has followed in the Senate's footsteps, with 250 congressmen sending a letter to Catherine Ashton, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, requesting that Hezbollah be recognized by the EU as a terrorist organization. The petition was started following the terrorist attack last July that killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian national in Burgas, Bulgaria.

Earlier this month, a bipartisan U.S. Senate letter urged the EU to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

"As the largest recipient of Iranian assistance, Hezbollah has conducted terrible acts of terrorism on Western targets in recent decades," the letter says. "Given the unrelenting and lethal activities of Hezbollah, we urge the EU to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization."

U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, led the bipartisan group of 76 senators.

"EU member countries, like the U.S., have suffered the tragic consequences of Hezbollah violence, supported by Iran, Hezbollah's founder and principal supporter," said AJC Executive Director David Harris after the Senate letter was sent. "The U.S wisely designated Hezbollah a terror organization in 1995. So has one EU member, the Netherlands, which has called on other EU member states to stand as one. The EU would be wise to heed the call from The Hague. Otherwise, there is a mixed message about the resolve to confront the reality of terrorism."

According to the senators' letter, "The EU should recognize Hezbollah for what it is — a terrorist organization — and stand with the United States against Hezbollah in all its forms."