Syria says EU blacklist of Hezbollah serves Israel’s plots in region

Hezbollah official set to meet EU envoy over blacklisting; Syrian source: EU decision came in response to US, Israeli pressure.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Nasarallah adresses crowd in Beirut (photo credit: REUTERS)
Nasarallah adresses crowd in Beirut
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A Hezbollah official will meet with the EU representative in Lebanon, the local Daily Star newspaper reported.
According to a press statement released by the Shi’ite movement on Wednesday, Hezbollah official Ammar Moussawi plans to meet EU Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst on Thursday in Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold.
Meanwhile, an official in Syria’s Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Tuesday denounced the EU’s decision to place the armed wing of Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations, saying the decision serves “Israeli plots in the region.”
According to the source, quoted by Syria’s SANA news agency on Wednesday, the European decision came in response to American and Israeli pressure.
“Hezbollah is a fundamental part of the Lebanese national fabric and enjoys a wide popularity in Lebanon,” said the source.
He added that Hezbollah is playing “a positive role in bolstering the national unity in brotherly Lebanon.”
Syria’s ally Iran also spoke out against the ban, condemning the EU’s decision and describing it as “biased,” according to a report by the Iranian Mehr News website on Wednesday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday called the decision “unacceptable.”
“Such measures will not change the popular and truth-seeking nature of Hezbollah, he said, adding that “the European Union’s move will serve the illegitimate interests of the Zionist regime.”
In a statement, Hezbollah said the EU decision “was written by American hands with Israeli ink.” The terrorist organization also said that the decision had no justification since it was “not based on any proof,” according to the report.
An article published on Tuesday in the Lebanese Al-Akhbar echoed these claims, arguing that Europe’s move can be attributed to its support of Zionism, which is based on their guilt from the Holocaust.
“The European ‘democracies’ have been loyal supporters of Israeli occupation and apartheid since the racist nation’s birth from the womb of Britain’s Balfour Declaration.
Their blind support for Zionism is firmly rooted in their guilt over the barbaric way they treated Jews during World War II.” The article goes on to claim that Hezbollah “exposed the cowardice and corruption of the system of Arab regimes who built their armies only to defend their thrones.”
Hezbollah MP Walid Sakaria said on Tuesday that the decision by the EU would not stop the group’s involvement in Syria’s civil war in support of President Bashar Assad, according to a report by the Turkish Anadolu Agency.