An Indonesian soldier from the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon stands near a UN armoured vehicle as a picture of Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is seen behind him in the southern Lebanese village of Adaisseh, yesterday.
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said yesterday the European Union had given Israel justification to attack Lebanon by blacklisting the armed wing of his group, and would bear responsibility for any Israeli military action.
The bloc agreed earlier this week to list what it described as the military wing of the Lebanon-based militant group as a terrorist organisation, in response to a deadly bus bombing in Bulgaria last year and Hezbollah’s role in Syria’s civil war.
“These countries must know ... that they have given legal cover to Israel for any aggression against Lebanon. Why? Because Israel can then say ‘We are waging war on terrorism’,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
“These countries have made themselves a full partner in responsibility for any Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” he said in the speech delivered by video link from an undisclosed location.
Nasrallah has been living in hiding, for fear of assassination, since his Shia group fought an inconclusive month-long war with Israel in 2006, triggered by Hezbollah’s cross-border attack on an Israeli frontier patrol.
He said the EU move would have no practical effect on Hezbollah itself, laughing off the impact of any travel ban and dismissing any attempt to freeze Hezbollah funds.
Hezbollah, he said, had no money in banks — “neither as a party nor as individuals” — and no trade interests, investments or companies in Lebanon or abroad that could be affected by such measures.
“The aim of this decision is to subdue us, force us to retreat ... to fear. But I say to you that through this decision you will achieve only failure and disappointment,” he said.
REUTERS
