July 22, 2013 | Die Presse - Austria (Google translation)

For a Total Ban on Hezbollah

On Monday, the European Union foreign ministers discussed in the context of their meeting in Brussels on an EU-wide ban on the military wing of Hezbollah.

And for good reason: In the summer of last year, for example, the Lebanese terrorist organization was killed in the Bulgarian city of Burgas in an attack on an Israeli-occupied with the Bulgarian tourist coach bus driver and five Israelis. The Austrian government recently announced tougher action against Hezbollah.

The danger is not new

Foreign Ministry State Secretary Reinhold Lopatka (ÖVP) said on Wednesday: “The Hezbollah militia classified as a terrorist organization is a political signal of condemnation.”

The activities are the “Party of God” not only recently a danger to Austria and throughout Europe.

Already in 1996, the Hezbollah agent Mikdad Hussein had met with an accomplice in Vienna to take a fake British passport in reception. He then traveled to Zurich and camouflaged from there to Tel Aviv to as British tourist to prepare a terrorist attack.

The most important patron of Hezbollah, which it did not last except on Jewish and Israeli targets, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Currently the organization supports the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria going to eliminate the opposition. In plain English: Hezbollah is a deadly threat to the people of the Middle East, Europe, worldwide.

The EU is considering since the attack in Burgas, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization – but only its military wing. However, the Lebanese force is understood as a monolithic organization, such as Mohammed Fannish, a member of Hezbollah's political bureau, in 2002, made clear when he said there was no separation between the military and the political arm.

No separation of the “arms”

Seven years later expressed Naim Qassem, deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, against the American newspaper “Los Angeles Times”: “The whole work of Hezbollah in the political, social and jihad depends directly on the decisions of their leaders from. The same leadership that is on the parliamentary and government work also leads to jihadist activities against Israel. “

Terrorism experts also argued for many years that there is no gap between the military and political wing of Hezbollah.

So far, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, Israel and Bahrain have sanctioned Hezbollah as a whole. UK, Australia and New Zealand have only considered the military wing as a terrorist.

On the black list

To counter the risk posed by the Hezbollah terrorist threat, the Arab Gulf states, meanwhile, are planning to put the organization on a blacklist. Bahrain has also accused Hezbollah of trying to overthrow the Sunni monarchy of using Iran, and they classified as the first Arab government as an illegal terrorist organization.

The Shiite Hezbollah positions itself in alliance with the Syrian Assad regime and the Shiite Iranian regime also clearly against the Sunni population in the region.

Should the EU foreign ministers struggle through at their meeting on Monday only to a partial ban of Hezbollah, this would still be able to collect money in Europe and to recruit new members.

The new report by the German intelligence service, according to Germany 950 Hezbollah members are active, the nation's meet in about 30 cultural and mosque associations. In 2008, wrote the constitution protection of the Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg that Hezbollah “in Germany a specially built almost the entire structure” have.

No Orphans

As the terrorism expert Alexander Ritzmann revealed in a study by the European Foundation for Democracy, belongs to this structure also based in the Lower Saxony club Orphans Project Lebanon V., who works closely with the Lebanese Al-Shahid Association in Beirut. This association supports financially the families of bombers and Hezbollah militants, including suicide bombers.

Germany has become almost a stronghold of Hezbollah.Although the German political class must be aware that the Association continues to collect money for their terrorist goals, yet neither the federal nor the Interior Ministry has interfered. Quite different is the situation in neighboring Netherlands: where Hezbollah is classified as a terrorist group at the national level for many years and can therefore no longer be active.

Freeze accounts in the EU

The alternative to a partial ban of Hezbollah in the EU would be to follow the example of the Netherlands. The need for a total ban on the terrorist organization is large, since otherwise it would still gaps that they could exploit for their own purposes. Hezbollah supporters example, could conceal their activities, the German constitutional protection. Only if the accounts and assets of Hezbollah within the EU frozen and its members are reported, the EU can effectively help the people of Syria and curb terrorism in Europe.

Austria can play an important role. Minister Spindelegger and the federal government have now changed their attitude.

The government was initially undecided, but has received in the past week new evidence that makes it clear that it is a terrorist organization Hezbollah in total. “Hezbollah is found on a list of Hamas and al-Qaeda,” it brought Foreign Ministry State Secretary Reinhold Lopatka in his statement because even to the point.

And therefore the EU foreign ministers would do well to place on Monday not only a part of Hizbollah on a list with Hamas and al-Qaeda, but to prohibit the entire organization in Europe.

Issues:

Hezbollah Lebanon