Europe Cowers in Front of Iran and Hezbollah

by Soeren Kern

• "Hezbollah itself has publicly denied a distinction between its military and political wings. The group in its entirety is assessed to be concerned in terrorism..." — The British Treasury, January 17, 2020.
• Britain joins the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, Israel, the 22-member Arab League, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay in making no distinction between Hezbollah's military and civilian wings. In all, more than 30 countries have banned the group in its entirety.
• In Germany, the EU's largest member state, a foreign ministry official, Niels Annen, said that a complete ban of Hezbollah would be counterproductive because "we focus on dialogue." His comment has been understood to mean that the German government does not want to burn bridges with Hezbollah's main patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism.
• In other EU member states, government officials appear worried that a total ban of Hezbollah could jeopardize the safety of European troops deployed to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. EU member states contribute more than 3,650 troops to UNIFIL — mostly from France, Italy and Spain.
• "Hezbollah is a single large organization, we have no wings that are separate from one another. What's being said in Brussels doesn't exist for us." — Ibrahim Mussawi, Hezbollah spokesman, interview in Der Spiegel, July 22, 2013.

According to Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem (left), the group is structurally unified: "We don't have a military wing and a political one... Every element of Hezbollah, from commanders to members as well as our various capabilities, is in the service of the resistance, and we have nothing but the resistance as a priority." (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images)

The British finance ministry has added the entirety of the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah — Arabic for "The Party of Allah" — to its sanctions list and has ordered a freeze on any assets it may have in the United Kingdom.

The move, aimed at cracking down on Hezbollah's fundraising activities in Britain, adds increased enforcement teeth to the British government's February 2019 decision no longer to distinguish between Hezbollah's military and political wings and to classify the entire organization as a terrorist group.

With the exception of the Netherlands, which outlawed all of Hezbollah in 2004, the UK now has the most comprehensive set of sanctions against the terrorist group in Europe. Being a member of, or providing support for, Hezbollah is a crime in Britain punishable by up to ten years in prison.

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