American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomes the introduction today of a resolution in the US Senate urging the European Union to designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terror organization. The bipartisan resolution was introduced by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn).
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AJC lauded the introduction in July of a similar resolution in the US House of Representatives.
In 2013, the EU – encouraged especially by Bulgaria, which experienced a Hezbollah attack in 2012, and Cyprus, which foiled an attack being planned by Hezbollah operatives, also in 2012 – designated only the so-called "military wing" of the Iranian-sponsored group a terrorist entity.
AJC has long advocated for governments to label the Lebanon-based Hezbollah a terrorist organization, and for applying sanctions against it. Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Lithuania, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States, as well as Gulf Cooperation Council and Arab League have all designated Hezbollah in its entirety as a terror organization.
"We encourage swift passage of this important bipartisan resolution in the House and Senate. It is past time for the EU to do the right thing and correct the fiction of a bifurcated Hezbollah it endorsed nearly a decade ago," said AJC CEO David Harris.
"Mistakenly believing it can tame Hezbollah's behavior, a proposition unsupported by evidence, the EU has created 'military' and 'political' wings within Hezbollah, when, in reality, it is a single, unified terrorist entity," Harris added.
