EU blacklisting Hezbollah, hypocritical: Analyst

Eugene Dabbous, professor at Notre Dame University, express his views to Press TV about the European Union putting what it calls the military wing of the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, on its terror blacklist.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Eugene Dabbous, well we want to look at the bigger picture here, ever since the liberation of al-Qusayr with the help of Hezbollah fighters, would you say that that in a major way contributed to the EU blacklisting Hezbollah because they are saying that the war on the ground is not being one by the US, its allies and some regional countries?

Dabbous: I think this is the primary reason for this decision and has very little to do with the terrorism accusation which is long-standing. If they can prove the claims with respect to Bulgaria and Argentina, why didn’t they ban Hezbollah a long time ago?

The evidence is not improved in any way. Obviously it’s the situation in Syria and the fact that Hezbollah is aiding the government in pushing back the rebels. This is a military operation, it’s in no way a terrorist operation. So they’re very hypocritical and actually I think this is very detrimental to the concept of rule of law on transparency in the European Union.

Press TV: And if we want to look at the reaction by Hezbollah they said this is no more than “ink on paper”. What would be actions to be taken ever since them putting Hezbollah’s military wing on a terror list?

I mean are they going to go after Hezbollah officials or what game plan do they have by doing this officially now?

Dabbous: Juxtaposed to the situation in South Africa, the Basques in Spain, in France or in Northern Ireland with the IRA (the Provisional Irish Republican Army), there is no clear distinction between the two branches of Hezbollah.

So how are they going to permit the civilian wing? If the civilian wing continues to operate in the EU, are they going to tolerate it? And this is very important. Next year when we have the parliamentary elections Hezbollah cannot campaign for parliament in the US because they’re considered to be a terrorist organization.

So the Lebanese diaspora living in the EU are now going to be blocked, they are going to be banned from participating equally in the electoral process which is also a strike against not only free elections in the Middle East but also against the whole concept of multiculturalism.