Sharon pushes France, EU to blacklist Hezbollah

JERUSALEM, March 15 (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stepped up pressure Tuesday on the European Union to blacklist Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah as a terrorist group, during talks with European premiers.

“It is important that the EU acts with determination to include Hezbollah on the terrorist organisation list and that it makes no distinction between its military and political wing,” Sharon told visiting Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.

“Hezbollah is the chief threat to Abu Mazen’s stability,” he added in comments published by his office, referring to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

“Hezbollah fosters terrorist operations and endangers the ceasefire that he is trying to negotiate,” Sharon added.

The Israeli premier made exactly the same appeal in separate talks with visiting French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, his office said.

Last Thursday, the EU parliament backed unspecified measures against Hezbollah in a resolution referring to “clear evidence of (its) terrorist activities”.

But it did not put Hezbollah on a European list of terrorist organisations, which already includes radical Palestinian faction Hamas.

© AFP